Edit The Campains in Super Dune 2

[Vasj]

hey im new to this Site and i whould Like to say im a Big fan of Dune and The books and Movie's " Series "

But what i really need help with is.. i have Download the SD Game The Conquest of Arrakis Version 1.27 and i love it. But there is one thing i really whould like is that in the campains the computer starts with a Full base " Like the other Dune games. what i whould like to know is. is there a Way i chould Edit The campain maps and place a Rebuild base in to the game im playing Via the Dune 2 Scenario Editor i have downloaded. i can easely make a Map and place buildings and all that. but it seems i cant Find the Campain maps anywere in my Folder?

[MrFlibble]

Hello!

The campaign maps are stored in the SCENARIO.PAK file in the original game (or CONQUEST.PAK in case of the mod). You can view the PAK contents with XCC Mixer (check here for the link and other useful tools to pack/unpack PAK files).

However, you do not necessarily need to replace the campaign map files, as the game will also read them directly from its root folder. The map filename pattern is SCEN#nnn.INI, where # is the first letter of the human player's side (Harkonnen, Atreides, Ordos, Fremen, Sardaukar, Mercenary) and nnn is a three-digit number. For example, SCENA001.INI is the first Atreides mission. Take note though that the numbers do not directly correspond to the mission numbers, because there can be several "versions" of each mission taking place on different maps. By default, there are three choices for missions 2 to 7 (SCEN#002.INI till SCEN019.INI), two choices for mission 8 (SCEN#020.INI and SCEN#021.INI) and one choice for the last, ninth mission.

[Vasj]

well thx for the Tip on XCC i can see how much units i can start with and all that and how much Credit.. but i cant find out how i can Change that. if i open the file in lets say Notpad then i change the Numbers on lets say max Unit=30 to like Maxunit=50 but it wont work in the game. but in xCC mixer i cant even modifir it or am i doing somthing wrong. even this is not the thing i want the most. the thing i want the most is a Editor Where i can Modify the maps lets say like the last Map Mission 9 where you start down and all 3 other houses start up North. i want is to modify so i wont need to build up a base but that when i come to the map the base is Build if you get me?

[MrFlibble]

XCC Mixer is only useful for viewing and extracting PAK contents (as I said, you don't need to edit the files inside SCENARIO.PAK/CONQUEST.PAK). TBH's scenario editor you'e linked to in your first post will be sufficient for your editing needs proper. Extract the map you want to edit (mission 9 is SCEN#022.INI) and place whatever building you want, then save it right in your Dune II folder. You should know however that there are several limits, for example the game will crash if the scenario file is larger than 10,000 bytes, and you can't have more than 80 buildings (regardless of their ownership) on a map at any given time. TBH's editor does not check such limits so you should do that yourself.

[Nyerguds]

This is how you can easily extract stuff with XCC mixer:

[Vasj]

Thx for all the info you guys are giving me. i found out how to modify the maps But it cant gem em to work.. i have Excrate em as you said add in the scenario editer. done all the work i should do on the map then saved the File inside My dune 2 Folder and now its there as a Single file. but should it not change in the Conquest.ini File how do add it to the Conquest ini file again after the modification i have made to it?

[Nyerguds]

conquest.ini? Nah, you don't need to edit that. Just the actual mission. After putting your edited version in the game folder, just load up a savegame of the mission and restart it, and your changes should show up.

[Vasj]

Hmm i have done Everything you guys have said i think and i still cant get it to work. this is what i have done

First Open XCC Mixer and Extract scens001.ini " First map on the sarduarkar Mission "

then startet the scenario editer and Load the scens001.ini in to it and Done the modification to it

Saved the map in to my Dune2/dunex Folder as a Pc Version Start the game but nothing have change at all

[MrFlibble]

Ahh, that's because of the little trick DuneX/SD2 uses to play as the new sides :) When you start the campaign, the game first loads a mission for either Atreides, Harkonnen or Ordos, but the files themselves are changed to switch to a new side (Fremen, Sardaukar or Mercenary). However, all subsequent missions use the correct side's file names. You can see your changes to SCENS001.INI once you start the campaign as the Sardaukar, then restart the mission. Voila, the changes should be there.

And yes, this means that the game has two identical files for each campaign's first mission, one with the original Houses' filenames and one with the correct new ones (which you can find inside CONQUEST.PAK).

[Vasj]

Ahh, that's because of the little trick DuneX/SD2 uses to play as the new sides :) When you start the campaign, the game first loads a mission for either Atreides, Harkonnen or Ordos, but the files themselves are changed to switch to a new side (Fremen, Sardaukar or Mercenary). However, all subsequent missions use the correct side's file names. You can see your changes to SCENS001.INI once you start the campaign as the Sardaukar, then restart the mission. Voila, the changes should be there.

And yes, this means that the game has two identical files for each campaign's first mission, one with the original Houses' filenames and one with the correct new ones (which you can find inside CONQUEST.PAK).

ITS ALIVE!!! ITS ALIVE!!! Thank you VERY MUCH!! Now i only need to know 1 more thing.. how do i edit the ini File So i start with 0 credits and the cpu aswell?

[bluehappybyte]

For Dune Legacy I wrote a specification of the Dune II Map Format (see http://sourceforge.net/apps/mediawiki/dunelegacy/index.php?title=Development/Map_Format). It contains extensions to the original format but these a clearly marked.

[Nyerguds]

bluehappybyte: that document seems to have errors. I know for a fact Westwood's ini reader can not handle whitespace around the "=" sign. Also, it's far too full of hypothetical stuff to be a useful guide, especially since a lot of that hypothetical stuff is not clearly indicated as such (case in point, section "FEATURES"). I suggest you make one guide of the format Dune II actually knows, and put all specifications of extensions in an entirely different document.

Vasj: Each house (Atreides, Harkonnen, etc) has an ini header in the mission file. One of the values below it is "Credits". That determines the starting money for each House.

[bluehappybyte]

bluehappybyte: that document seems to have errors. I know for a fact Westwood's ini reader can not handle whitespace around the "=" sign.

It can! Have a look at the REGION?.INI files. They are full of whitespaces, e.g. TOTAL REGIONS = 27

Also, it's far too full of hypothetical stuff to be a useful guide, especially since a lot of that hypothetical stuff is not clearly indicated as such (case in point, section "FEATURES").

As far as I know Dune II just ignores this section. And as any such feature wouldn't be for version 1 of the file format no one should expect it to magically work. But it could be clearer: I inserted a version information (>= 2) in the title of the chapter. I'm all up for further hints on missleading/hypothetical stuff. In fact I wrote this specification as their was no such complete guide available.

[MrFlibble]

As far as I know Dune II just ignores this section. And as any such feature wouldn't be for version 1 of the file format no one should expect it to magically work.

The only potential problem with this is that excess size of a scenario file is undesirable if it is to be parsed by the original game (not sure about faithful engine recreations like OpenDUNE). As I mentioned above, an INI file larger than 9,999 bytes* crashes the game.

* I've never bothered to determine the exact maximum file size that is allowed for scenarios, but anything larger than 10,000 bytes is sure to result in the scenario not loading correctly.

[bluehappybyte]

The only potential problem with this is that excess size of a scenario file is undesirable if it is to be parsed by the original game (not sure about faithful engine recreations like OpenDUNE). As I mentioned above, an INI file larger than 9,999 bytes* crashes the game.

* I've never bothered to determine the exact maximum file size that is allowed for scenarios, but anything larger than 10,000 bytes is sure to result in the scenario not loading correctly.

Is there a list of all the limitation of the Dune II map format? Above you mention 80 structures. Is this number precise? What about units? I'm not talking about in-game but loading a scenario. Would like to add as many of these limits as possible to my map format specification. This would also make it easy for an editor to check for these limits. Something like "Warning: This map is not Dune II compatible..."

[MrFlibble]

AFAIK there's never been a concise list, and many things were just that, derived from experience. I guess that the guys from OpenDUNE should know (or one could learn them from reading their code), but other than that it's mostly observations made by different people.

[Nyerguds]

It can! Have a look at the REGION?.INI files. They are full of whitespaces, e.g. TOTAL REGIONS = 27

Well, I'm going to have to apologize for that. You were absolutely correct.

...I just struggled for 2 days to make C&C95 read ini values that could start with spaces. I ended up making an entire copy of the INIClass_GetString() function, just to have a version that wouldn't trim the result -_-

(on a more positive, but utterly off-topic note, WW Strings Files are now a thing of the past for C&C95. Yay for ini-based game text!)

The only potential problem with this is that excess size of a scenario file is undesirable if it is to be parsed by the original game (not sure about faithful engine recreations like OpenDUNE). As I mentioned above, an INI file larger than 9,999 bytes* crashes the game.

Really? I'd think that as a mission maker, using features that don't actually exist in the game is kind of a problem on its own, since, you know, these features won't work, while the mission maker will expect them to.

[MrFlibble]

Not to contend what you've said, I suppose that anyone who wants to make their own levels for any game would act wisely if started with carefully studying existing levels, and first and foremost the ones that come with the original game. That way, you can actually learn more about the format and level designing tricks than from any third-party guides or tools, no matter how good and detailed they may be (although of course, good and detailed guides are excellent).

Remember how Blizzard included the Enslavers veteran campaign in Starcraft which served both as an extra campaign and as an example of what could be done with the campaign editor?

[Nyerguds]

Yeah, but the guide still offers insight into advanced stuff like the win/lose bit flags, which you CAN'T easily figure out from the missions themselves, besides just 'copying values'. For example, it'd be cool to have a mission where you start with only an army, and don't lose for having no buildings.

I just think it's a pity it adds a mess of confusing non-existing extra features in the same document.

[MrFlibble]

I never said the guides are made obsolete by careful research of the missions themselves - of course they aren't! But if we speak about the win/lose flags, on the pragmatic level it is for the most part sufficient to use the combinations that you encounter in the original missions, even if you do not know anything about the bit thingy behind it.