Emperor expansion pack

[Edric O]

ken124578:

Ah, the superweapons! :D Well, the Harks keep their Death Hand. The Ordos get the Saboteur instead of the Chaos Lightning. But not the lame Emperor-style one. The old Dune2k Saboteur is back! I remember many people were dissapointed when it wasn't included in Emperor. Of course, he won't be entirely like in Dune2k. He'll have scout-like stealth, but it will take longer to build him.

The Corrinos get the Bashar, a powerful Sardaukar general (or was that colonel?) who carries an upgraded version of the Elite Sard laser AND a sniper rifle! Hey, he's a superweapon after all. ;) Since the 3 SWs are far from having equal power, we'll keep it balanced by giving them VERY different reload times.

The Hawk Strike no longer exists, obviously (we could have used it for other things, but unfortunatelly that hawk only fits with the Atreides). There's still a way to get the Chaos Lightning, though. The Mercenaries (a new subhouse) give you a medium-priced, but non-stealthy and unarmed infantryman called the Chaos Spy. He can infiltrate buildings (and of course he doesn't come out again). If he infiltrates ANY enemy building, you get a free Chaos Lightning shot to use as you please. More infiltrated spies, more shots!

Worm13:

We'll use your Worm Tank idea on the sand mine. We'll give it to the Smugglers (the second new subhouse). So the Smugglers get this sand mine and the Quad. I had invented another second unit for the Smugglers (I can't remember what is was, but I can remember that I thought it was one of my worst unit ideas), but the sand mine is better.

apollokiev:

About the naval units: making such units would be too much trouble and nobody would use them anyway. The vast majority of battles (both single and multiplayer) take place on Arrakis. Caladan is not gone, the tileset is still there. After all, the Harks didn't nuke the whole planet, just the important cities.

ghosty:

Please remind me what the second mercenary unit is (besides the Chaos Spy). Also, I don't see why we should make something that clears minefields. After all, mines can be killed like ordinary units, right? Let's just give scouts the ability to detect them!

Do you still want to give each subhouse 2 new buildings? Well, in that case we need to find something for the smugglers and the mercs. But I still think that those subhouse refineries and windtraps will be useless.

[Edric O]

Sneakgab, we'll give you the unit stats with the mod. As for the unit descriptions, I'll post them on my site as soon as I talk to ghosty and he emails them to me.

[Sneakgab]

yipee! you're using my unit idea :)

the choas spy i can foresee would be thouroughly useless though...why would i want a chaos shot when i could use an engi and end the game right there?? <i don't mind though

yea..i also thought making a new unit to detect mines would be a bother far better to use the scout for that...but wouldn't the scout be thouroughly destroyed???also how fast can a mine move...if it can move fast then i would rather have a specialized mine sensor...especially if it can jus run into unit's without having to stand still for a little while and actually deploy it's blast..the thing im worried about is that a moving mine that run's into thing's instead of exploding from being stepped on is no different to a cloacked kamikaze unit

Good luck with the rest of the expansion

[Edric O]

Not really, the Chaos Spy was my very first unit idea for a Dune game. Well, at first I wanted it to cause chaos by changing the alliegeance of enemy units randomly for some seconds. But that's impossible to implement.

Why use this instead of an engineer? Because getting a Chaos Lightning is better than, say, capturing a Windtrap! I did say ANY building. Besides, the spy will have much better armour than the engi.

Edit: Also, notice that you can infiltrate an infinite number of spies in the same building. So if you get 5 of them to a poorly defended Windtrap you can get 5 C-Lightnings.

[This message has been edited by EdricO (edited 12-22-2001).]

[Guest apollokiev]

Thanks ghostysquare for considering the ordos cloaked pop-up turret thing.

There is another thing that I would really like, but not sure if it can be done with the Emperor engine:

It would be nice if I had an 'escort' or 'guard' command for a unit. For example, I pack an Ordos APC with engineers, and for its protection I select some units, hold down a key ( 'G' for example) and click on the the APC. Now those units I've selected has the job of 'protecting' the APC. When moving you can use the formation move, but it may be tricky to design an automated script that protects it.

I've seen this in many older games (Outpost2, for example) and it was really nice.

Also, any chance of naval vessels for the Draconis IV and Caladan ( wait..Atreides is gone. *cries*. Maybe you could have a side mission where House Corrino takes a small force to the devastated world of Caladan to retrieve some old Atreides supplies/technology... that would be kinda cool. See the burned fields, the battered ruined Atreides palace, craters everywhere) As for ships, it would be neat to have little dropships. It could function like an APC. You move them next to shore to load troops. And an advanced dropship would be able to hold a vehicle.

Warcraft II pulled the whole naval idea pretty well.

Again, thank you so much for your hard work GhostySquare and Edric0.

~ Kiev

[This message has been edited by apollokiev (edited 12-22-2001).]

[Guest Azza]

That face dancer is a good idea. it could belong to house Tleilaxu or summin' like that.

And you could bring in more units from the books. nothing comes to my mind at the moment except a MUAD'DIB unit that is like a Fremen general (any ideas on what he does?)

And earlier you were talking about the different houses not having too many powerful units and such and such. I have a way of countering this!

Just use an advanced carryall to ferry some enginneeers in an APC to an enemy base, and capture their MCV. undeploy it and carry it back to your base! Most player are unprepared for it, and on one match, i managed to collect a ordos, atreides and a harkonnen MCV!

You talk of balance issues, but there will ALWAYS be a way to overcome them.........ALWAYS!

[Guest truemouse]

first time i looked at this post, i thought it was some newbie askin ww for an expansion pack, anyway looking good!

[Guest Feyd-Rautha]

If you're planning on putting heroes in (Bronso of Ix, Hasimir Fenrig, Feyd-Rautha) I would recommend getting rid of Fenrig and putting Farad'n Corrino in. After all, the plot says there is a new Corrino heir, who better than Farad'n Corrino to "hit the beach" :) with his troops.

Feyd

*Ahem* "Hit the beach" as in...going to Arrakis...which is *cough* entirely...sand. Y'know *cough* like a beach...*clears throat*...um...I'll let myself out.

[Sneakgab]

hehe yes i to love nicking enemy conyards...it is most humorous when the opponent thinks that you are trying to finish him and thus start's buildings turret's and securing his fac thinking he's nice n' safe...the next thing he know's his conyard dissapears without a trace....such is the way of Atreides!!!

<work's well on expert's team matches as well..i forgot who it was that i was playing but i remember nicking an base but the enemy already had an mcv however i had spy's in the fog of war match and as soon as he deployed it i stole and sent it back to my base to add some Ordos unit's for the front lines!! :D>

me:all hail Atreides camo APC!

all:all hail Atreides camo APC!

<gonna miss that APC>

So..got the unit desprictions yet

[Guest FedyakinSkyHunter]

its been a while feyd.

[Guest Feyd-Rautha]

Indeed it has. School and all...Christmas vacation now...so I can come back and hang out with all you nerds. :D Just kidding. If there's anyone here without a life, it's me.

Feyd

[Ghosty_Square]

Hello everyone,

I hope you understood I was on holiday :)

I 'm planning to make some modifications to the chaos spy so it will be more useful than an engineer.

Edric O, the second smuggler unit was the mobile cannon. And we can also make buildable the smuggler's starport (which already exists in the game but cannot be build).

Now, since I 'm quite awful at drawing, is anybody kind enough to draw the units' icons?

[Guest darthdaft]

Hi edric0, i see youve been busy. what a good idea to put fenring + rautha in the mix. what can they do though ? and what about the bashars? sounds great man. NO ATREIDES!?!?!?!?!?!?!? you go too far (joke) Seriously, it will be good to play corrinos for once (just dont make them pink) sard uniforms should be gray. i think youll do better than ww coz u dont have the problem of not ripping of the books - or do you?

One thing though - if harkkonens used atomics on Atreides than all the landsraad would have whooped them for breaking the convention.

keep up the good work.

[Edric O]

Ok ghosty, of course I'll post the descriptions... as soon as you email them to me. :D

Feyd, the heroes can't be the House leaders, can they?

Darthdaft, I'm not following the original storyline, but I am introducing SOME characters from the book... As for the use of atomics, the Harks made sure nobody found out (they made it look like the Atreides atomics accidentaly exploded when the Atreides cities were under siege).

[Ghosty_Square]

Not much volunteers for drawing huh?

I think it's time we post units' descriptions Edric O.

[Edric O]

Correction: the Harks hold a little under half of Arrakis when the game starts ;)

And the Guild is unusually uninterested by what's happening on Arrakis. Now why could that be? Hint: It has nothing to do with the Emperor Worm.

Well, actually, I have several ideas for the storyline and I haven't decided on which to keep. With some of them I might have problems linking them together.

[Ghosty_Square]

Would you mind posting your ideas Edric O? Or at least send them to me?

[Guest Ziggy]

Just HOW are you going to tell the story? Written? CG? Using your dad's camcorder?

[Ghosty_Square]

Hello everybody,

Darthdaft, even if everybody had known about Harnkonnen atomics, what else could they do apart from what they are already doing (Corrinos & Ordos attack 'em)? The Harkonnen hold Arrakis now, so they are truly powerful.

But even before our mod, the Harkonnens WERE using atomics (Death Hand).

Edric O I 'll soon send you the descriptions.

[Guest Stelman]

But there is still not way to include the Atreides in the mod?

[Ghosty_Square]

Why not have the story written Ziggy?

And Stelman we CANNOT include Atreides in the mod, so don't ask again. Tell us your ideas for new units if you want, but no Atreides.

[Ghosty_Square]

Finally, before starting the hard work, I 'd like to know if you have any ideas on the new AI. Make suggestions on how it should be (for ex. it should attack earlier it should defend its base better or go for the spice fields etc).

Note: We 're trying to make the AI smarter.

[Ghosty_Square]

I 'm not sure but doubtful Stelman.

BTW, Happy New Year everyone. Local date and time is 00:50am 1 January 2002

I vote for Corrinos. So:

Corrinos:1

Atreides:0

[Guest darthdaft]

ghostysquare + edric0

ive got just one question.

are house atreides in it?

yak yak.

[Ghosty_Square]

Very funny darthdaft. Anyone smarter here?