OpenD2k - cross platform reimplementation of Dune 2000

[Matthias M.]

I also noted that the Windows Uninstall seems to be incomplete https://github.com/OpenRA/OpenRA/issues/2790 Not sure if http://www.desura.com/games/openra solves this better.

[Matthias M.]

Today we're announcing our long-overdue "Mammoth May Madness" release.

In the last 7 months, 26 authors have contributed more than 1,100 individual changes and improvements.

Some of the highlights in this release include:

• Significantly improved AI.
• UI improvements to the menus and lobby.
• New UI for replays, spectators and defeated players.
• New construction radius limits for C&C and D2K.
• Repairable bridges.
• Desert theater for RA.
• Left-click mouse controls (beta).
• 5 new missions for RA.
• 20 new multiplayer maps across all three mods.
• Significant balance improvements across all three mods.
• More bugfixes than you can shake a tesla coil at.

Screenshots

 

 

A composite screenshot showing the new lobby tooltips and player color selector in the Dune 2000 mod.

 

 

The Red Alert mod includes a new main menu and desert-themed shellmap.

 

 

C&C and D2K now requires buildings to be constructed near a construction yard, reducing the effectiveness of multiple-building-queue base-walking strategies.

 

 

Bridges can now be repaired by sending an engineer into the rubble.

Head to the Official Website or Desura to download.

[athanasios]

Wonderful news!

 

 

The C&C and D2K mods now require buildings to be constructed near a construction yard, reducing the effectiveness of multiple-building-queue base-walking strategies.

But this is a deviation from original. You should set this as a configurable option.

 

[Feda]

Nice, but one question: the d2k mod is the same as the link from post #195 ?

[Matthias M.]

Nice, but one question: the d2k mod is the same as the link from post #195 ?

 

No, psydev did a lot of tinkering on it contributing patches almost daily whenever we played a test match adjusting the balancing.

[DoMiNaNt_HuNtEr]

Yo. This is awesome.

 

But, I was playing D2K with 7 hard AIs, and the game lagged to shit about 5 mins in, becoming unplayable. But it's still a beta right?

 

Now I'm gonna try out the RA mod with 12 players, see if that lags too.

[Matthias M.]

I suspect this is somehow a path finder issue. Have you walled yourself in so the AI can't throw units at you because usually this is an island map / choke point phenomena. If this is not the case please follow https://github.com/OpenRA/OpenRA/wiki/FAQ#my-fps-is-way-too-low to create a proper performance problem report so this can be fixed.

[athanasios]

Finally it is working with latest one in my PC. One of the many issues that need to be fixed that I found very annoying (besides lags) is the choppy scrolling. Anotherone is the inability to choose screen resolution and refresh rate (especially the latter!)

[Feda]

There's something I don't get. Ok so why would you add that construction radius to prevent base walking in dune where you can build only on dirt and NOT ADD it on RA? I played a 5v5 or something and the enemies were spamming power plants and turrets in my base - in other words 3 or 4 of them were building power plants next to each other, base crawled (base-walked or whatever u wanna call it) all the way to our bases and started spamming turrets and pillboxes, they had literally almost no army. We couldn't do shit just because ALL OF THEM were building turrets without stop (and now that defences have a separate queue than normal buildings it is even easier to spam them). 

 

This is totally retarded in my opinion and i don't see what kind of strategy u guys thought about when u let such bullshit builds & stuff happen. I really got pissed off cuz our team was doing better when it comes to army and tactic but 3 guys spamming turrets seems to be enough to get owned. My 2 cents.

[Matthias M.]

I think psydev wanted to prevent people from spamming defensive turrets after capturing any non-construction-yard enemy building outside your own base which is still possible although the Dune 2000 terrain prevents base crawling. Adding this building placement limitations to RA is controversial therefore I created a poll at http://www.sleipnirstuff.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=82&t=16284 for people to vote.

[Feda]

Thats a good idea, and it should definitely be implemented in RA too.. The part with building defences in enemy base is something very bad that should be removed. No strategy in that, and it is similar to the way ppl spam tesla coils in your base on those retarded money maps played on CnCNet. That's the only thing i really hate about RA + heavy tank spam and i was hoping OpenRA will get rid of that but it seems it hadn't :/

[Matthias M.]

What is an exploit and what is the heart of the game is somewhat not easy to determine. That is probably why the hard-core tank spammers at CnCNet don't like this project. Another attempt is to disallow team-base-crawling https://github.com/OpenRA/OpenRA/issues/2464

[Feda]

What is an exploit and what is the heart of the game is somewhat not easy to determine. That is probably why the hard-core tank spammers at CnCNet don't like this project. Another attempt is to disallow team-base-crawling https://github.com/OpenRA/OpenRA/issues/2464

I support you in that! 

[DoMiNaNt_HuNtEr]

Yeah I played 6 v 6 OpenC&C, lagged to shit. Freeze frame style. Must be the AI.

 

Still, this project is awesome. I presume the AI is on the back burner?

[Matthias M.]

It is most probably the path finder which is very costly and the AI spams it whenever it can't find a direct way with island maps being the worsed case scenario. Walling yourself in or blocking choke points might trigger this, too.

[Feda]

I experienced it on a normal map on TD mod without water or choke points, 4v4 i think.

[Matthias M.]

The C&C mod is kinda spammy with it's multiple production queues. I noticed a lot of lag when someone threw his infantry armada at me.

[Matthias M.]

I recently added support for WAV files and SOUND.RS to OpenRA.

[Nyerguds]

(and now that defences have a separate queue than normal buildings it is even easier to spam them).

Wow, they totally fell for the C&C3 trap, and then even used the countermeasures from the C&C3 patches to try to stop it? Ugh, come on. It didn't work in C&C3, either.

[Matthias M.]

Good news for all people listening to this development diary. I am on vacation and have got some time for this little hobby project again.

 

 

Paul added support for additive blending which allows us to use the translucent Dune 2000 explosions. https://github.com/OpenRA/OpenRA/pull/3683 The next version of OpenRA will also depreceate any conversion steps and read DATA.R8 natively. https://github.com/OpenRA/OpenRA/pull/3676 Support for overlay animations (without manual photoshopping) is also available in the development repository https://github.com/OpenRA/OpenRA/pull/3681

[Feda]

Neat. 

 

What other changes do you have for the next release? Are you satisfied with the current balance & settings? (no irony here, i'm seriously asking as I didnt play it very much there are no ppl playing it) Also, can you guys improve the AI a bit, they dont use support powers or superweapons now. Also, the "Missile launch detected" sound would be great, as it can announce you that a nuke has been launched. Maybe some soudns from Ra/TD for airstrike if there are any, but that's not very important.

 

I'd like to see how the developers see the balance between the sides, so somethin like a stratgy guide explainin 2-3 tactics for each side would be awesome. Right now they still look the same for me :D

 

And something i've been asking myself for quit a while, is ANYONE playing the dune2k & TD mod there or it's all about RA? I've never seen anyone playing d2k or TD. =(

[Matthias M.]

Red Alert is certainly very popular. There simply is no Dune 2000 expert who has yet achieved to provide us with better MiniYAML rules although psydev worked a little bit on it to make it less like Red Alert on Arrakis.

 

The AI can already fire super weapons and we also have support for missile launch sounds for quite a long time so you may have played a very old version there. Subscribe to http://www.moddb.com/games/openra to see the recent changes in playtests that form the basis of the next stable release.

 

You seem to be the YouTube broadcaster. I won't post any videos on how to play the game as I am not very good at it. We played a developer deathmatch recently to test our new frozen under fog feature, but that was on a unstable build, so you can't watch the replay. Hint: you win the game by map control → expanding a lot with more MCVs. The rest is tank spam, scouting the enemy, positioning artillery wisely, nuking the right target and maybe sneaking in engineers via para troopers as Ordos.

[Feda]

Well I am making videos but I have no idea how to properly play this dune mod. Perhaps a dune giude with some Atreides, ordos and harkonnen tactics from developers? Some house specific

I played the latest release, ending with 504 or something. Which playtest has all those?

Oh and please, FOCUS on the c&c left click orders please, right now the clicks fail a lot. For example if i click and move cursor even a lil bit the drag-units activates, over an incredible small area, selecting nothing and deselecting the units. I was happy to see that left click orders were added but then disappointed to see they don't really work.

[Matthias M.]

The smarter bots have been added since http://www.moddb.com/games/openra/news/playtest-20130311

 

We don't have any developer who uses left-click orders, so this is not likely to be a priority for improvement, sorry.

[Matthias M.]

Released as http://www.moddb.com/news/playtest-20130818 with lot's of visual improvements (requires the OpenGL renderer). I just noticed that the AI does not tech up properly and that is why you never get nuked by it. Will fix that in the next iteration.