Adding units for Emperor: Battle for Dune

[SanguineSoul]

Hey, new here, and fairly new to the mod scene. I would like to know how to add units in emperor, if at all possible. As I would like to expand a little bit on the infantry selections contained within all of the houses, and the removal of the more heavier vehicles, in favor of just the lighter ones. To make the game more centric towards infantry tactics.

Additions/changes I'd make

Such as:

Specialist troops, like commandos, etc.

A broader assortment of basic infantry

Removal of almost all infantry crush units, but keeping things like trikes, quads, hovertanks.

Any input would be greatly appreciated.

Sanguine-Soul

(and yes, I do have Tib-ed, but in there it seems there is no way to mess with more than just unit parameters.)

Update:

These are the ideas I have so far on what I would like to do:

Unit ideas for Emperor Mod:

Infantry units:

Atredes:

Commando

Force Recon

Machinegunner (deployable)

sniper (deployable)

Mortar man (deployable)

Anti-Tank

Riflemen

Elite Infantry

Grenadier (maybe)

Ordos:

Force Recon

Assassin (Subloid, deploys in order to copy a unit's appearance)

Saboteur

Riflemen

Anti-Tank

Chemical Weapons

Mortarman (Deployable)

Machinegunner (deployable)

Medic (deployable to aid station)

Harkonnen:

Force Recon

Storm trooper

Rifleman

Anti-Tank

Elite Storm trooper

Machinegun (deployable)

Mortar (deployable)

Flamethrower

Berserker

Vehicles: (All sides will have these units, despite how they may look)

Armored personell carrier:

Carries 10 riflemen/force recon or 5 of any other infantry unit.

Armed with a light machinegun.

Infantry Fighting Vehicle:

Carries 5 riflemen/force recon or 1 of any other infantry unit.

Armed with a Heavy Machinegun

Supply Vehicle:

Deploys into a Ammo dump, where soldiers resupply. Deployable anywhere. (Unarmed)

Medical Vehicle:

Deploys into a Triage station and heals soldiers. Deployable only near a ammo dump. (unarmed)

Combat Skimmer:

A light armored vehicle that carries a Light Laser Cannon and a light machinegun. Useful against other IFV and infantry.

Game concepts:

Supply:

Each Infantry unit will have a limited ammount of ammo, thus forcing them to rely on supply depots (deployable building from supply vehicles. A soldier will automatically retreat to the nearest supply depot.

Triage:

Every battle has casualties and wounded. Each side will be able build a medical vehcile which will deploy into a triage station, which will heal soldiers. (Note, soldiers will not autoretreat to the triage station)

Lack of Heavy tanks:

Heavy tanks/vehicles would somewhat blunt the entire reasoning behind the concept of the infantry mod, and thus would be removed. The only exception to the rule would be the spice harvester.

Infantry as base defenses:

Like any army, you would need a garrison to protect your base, and therefore there will be no buildable base defenses.

Light Vehicles:

Infantry tactics often surround the use of an apc or Infantry fighting vehicle. While better than infantry and more durable, they will lack many things that the infantry has, such as the ability to hide in cover, etc.

[Nyerguds]

Hmm... odd as this may sound, most of the active people here are Dune II modders :P

Though I hope you'll find some information on that.

[SanguineSoul]

I'm sure I'll get a bite on my line sooner or later. It's all about the optimism here.

All it really boils down to is: How? From there the more 'complicated' details can sort themselves out later.

[MrFlibble]

I remember that in Emperor, like in other Westwood RTS games, there's a rules.ini file that contains most info on units, structures, superweapon stuff and the like. I remember trying to edit something, but without much success, and since I wasn't too motivated to do that anyway, I didn't bother investigating into this matter any further.

Hopefully someone more experienced in Emperor modding will show up and help you :)

[SanguineSoul]

I've messed with the Rules.ini file a bunch, and so far i've figured out mostly how to change hitpoint perams,armor,weapons etc. So I have a pretty good idea how to make most of the units <DO> what I want them to, (except for some reason I can't get snipers to do what I want them to, which is to deploy to use the rifle) It's just the whole adding/removal thing that's all wonky hard. Not to mention changing the icons for stuff. I'm sure eventually I'll get some help on the whole shebang. For now I'll just keep my fingers crossed, and continue working on the mechanics concepts I'd like to implement. (Not to mention expand on the list of infantry units.)

[SanguineSoul]

Few Ideas I had whilst I was out today chilling at a coffee shop:

Don't know if there possible, but they'd be relatively cool concepts:

Different Options packages that you could upgrade your soldiers with, like gasmasks and stuff.

Just a thought. Still kind of in the dark as to how to add units to each side. Even if it's just the ones that already come with the game that are instance models etc.

[atomicar]

Wow i like the effort u put into ur posts.

Unfortunetly most of ur ideas wont work for example a medic is not possible.

In emperor modding there is not much units to add and most are useless like the ix slave.

In my mod the Hour of Assasins the only infantry unit i added was the atreide general because he looked unique and he can shoot.

If u go to the model file and look at the art file and the rules file u will be able to work out how to add units to a mod,just look at my atreide general as an example. A medical vehicle is available but cant heal units around the vehicle so no point in adding this vehicle to a mod.

An apc takes 5 infantry units u cant change it to 10 however if u can prove me wrong on any of the above let me know so i can update my mod.

If u looking 4 a mod that has alot of unique stuff then i recommend ITDG (In The Destroyers Grip) by Apollyon.

Anyway good luck.

[SanguineSoul]

Thanks Atomicar, those are all good things to know. I'll scrap the medical unit, and simply just give every infantry very slow self healing. That should at least represent the field med-kits any soldier would have.

This is very helpful indeed. I should, assuming the holidays don't eat all my time have at least a very basic beta going.

[SanguineSoul]

Also, through TibEd, I may have found a way to make a medic work. ^^ You just need this Command in the rules.ini

Repair = true

And on the units that you want to be repairable, you simply just set:

CanBeRepaired = TRUE

[MrFlibble]

Also, through TibEd, I may have found a way to make a medic work. ^^ You just need this Command in the rules.ini

Repair = true

And on the units that you want to be repairable, you simply just set:

CanBeRepaired = TRUE

Isn't this going to make infantry repairable by the Atreides Repair Vehicle? And vehicles repairable by a medic?

[SanguineSoul]

Isn't this going to make infantry repairable by the Atreides Repair Vehicle? And vehicles repairable by a medic?

If there's a repair vehicle in my mod. ;)

Which there won't be, to prevent such madness.

Likely I will have it set up to be the reverse, where vehicles cannot be healed, but infantry can.

I'll meddle around more with stuff. It's going to be a relatively long while before everything is complete or even possibly able to be submitted. Once The holiday madness calms down (I probably this monday) I will start working a bit more seriously on it. Right now it's the "figure stuff out" phase and so on.

[SanguineSoul]

I should probably come up with a name for the mod, as well.. >.>

I was thinking:

Emperor: Sands of Blood

Or something along those lines.

[Joefromtwg]

This sounds like a good mod idea.

With TibEd. You would have to make a new warhead that heals and assign it to your medic. That or perhaps create a warehead that has to be deployed and heals surrounding units?

Or turn your troops into robots/cyborgs and change them into vehicles. LOL