Updating and rearranging missions/campaigns from D2k+

[Cm_blast]

Hi everyone. I wanted to play several of the missions/campaigns from the D2k+ since before even doing any of my custom maps those mission/campaigns posted there were the first levels I played.

However, those maps and missions requires to do a full overwrite of levels, texts and more. Now that we have all those amazing tools (modified dune2000.exe, a mission launcher, the newest editor...) I decided to convert them so I could play the one I want at anytime and not worrying about overwriting, creating back ups...

The main idea is the conversion (and adaptation) but trying to not change the original maps unless is necessary (a wrong mission fail/win condition, for example), but maintaining the rest, for respect the author.

These are the things I did:
- Renaming files to names like "Emperor mission by Shai Gel98.map" or "Ordos Campaign X by Magier.map"
- Swiching sides with the editor (units, events, alliances...), so the "Shai Gel98" mission will be into the "Emperor" section of the launcher.
- Copying the briefing from a text.uib (or readme.txt provided) into the .ini files.
- Despite the last point, the text.uib is still used, just in case more lines were changed and I am not aware (of course, text.uib is rename too).
- Minor fixing. Like desactivating the sandworm IA side to avoid a "invisible unit shooting from nowhere". Also, now the Luminar's Fremen campaign should be beatable (trigger a mission successful when you beat the objetive).
- Playing all those maps/mission/campaigns.

This is what I didn't:
- I didn't change the visual of the maps at all, even when some parts looks weird or out of place.
- I didn't place my name on it. Just the name of the autor taken from the D2kplus web-page, although the Smuggler campaign have "Rick Vorstenbosch" in the webpage and then in the final mission is "The-Doc-88".
- I didn't ask permission to some autors (they are gone; a few of them let me do this).

All the works is done. Everysingle campaign and mission from "d2kplus" (plus others from this forum) have been converted to work with mission launcher. Custom text.uib, bin... are included. All should works fine (if apply correctly) with mission launcher without affecting the original game at all (remember, the .bin files will change the game, so do a back_up if playing some specific mods).

 

LAST EDIT 15/01/2019 (Final entry: Changed Dune By MustaphaTR) *

Here the list of campaigns and missions done:
-Atreides Campaign Battle for Dune by AKaFedaYkin & Iheb96
-Changed Dune by MustaphaTR (3 missions)
-Emperor Mission by Shai-Gel98
-Emperor Reign by Sandworm
-Hammerfest mission by Feda
-Fremen campaign by Luminar + three bonus missions (a new tileset is included and require to play 1 mission, this doesn't affect other campaigns at all)
-Mercenaries Mission by Galaxy
-Mulciber Valley mission by MVI
-Ordos Campaign by Magier
-Rise of the Mercenary by gruntmod (the 2 missions released)
-Skorocel remakes missions (3 missions)
-Smuggler campaign by Rick Vorstenbosch
-Skirmish mission by Feda
-Time based Smuggler Campaign by Jbil89 * 

Download here:
All campaigns and missions made by third parties.rar (Changed Dune not included here).

Changed Dune.rar <-- last mod

I am adding the imagen of the custom tileset from the Luminar Fremen night mission campaign (.bmp) file extracted from the data itself, here:
BLOXBAT2.rar <-- the file it's not needed to play that campaign or even to use it on the editor; I am only uploading it to showcase how the tileset looks and if somebody want to try to do a new tileset based on this one.
Note: The imagen attached it's useless by himself, it's just to show off; pick up the ".rar" that contain the .bmp.
 (click on enlarge the imagen).

 

EDIT: JULY/2020

With the creation of the new version of the mission launcher by Feda, now this can be loaded more easily by using my custom stuff, like having different crates, altering the tech of the player/enemy, and all kind of things that previosly required to being overwritten manually. With the new version of that said launcher that's not needed anymore, if you have well placed the next pair of files. One contain the custom stuff used for this specific work, and the other the new .ini that can make that custom stuff to be loading it.

Download files here:
CustomCampaignData.rar
ini updated.rar

How to install:
-CustomCampaignData: un zip this rar and move it into the root of the game, which means a folder called "CustomCampaignData" has to share the same folder as "Dune2000.exe" and "Missionlauncher.exe" are stored.
-.ini files: After downloading the campaign (on the above area of this post), ovewritte with these .ini files. Simply Unzip it and ovewritte.
- These two things only work together with the new version MissionLauncher released in this 2020 year, but they are still compatible with an early version, although if that's the case you have to do all the changes needed manually.

These two includes all the missions done, not the others rearange by me, but most of my other mods (although not all of them) all in one single file for convenience (only for CustomCampaignData; inis from my own mods have to be downloaded separatelly.

Edited July 22, 2020 by Cm_blast
adding new mod

[Feda]

It would be great to port my missions as well, I would appreciate it as I really don't have time nor enough motivation to go through that process anymore  

[Cm_blast]

2 hours ago, FedaYkin said:

It would be great to port my missions as well, I would appreciate it as I really don't have time nor enough motivation to go through that process anymore  

Good to know. Then I will work in the Atreides Campaign and those 2 missions. At least the Campaign seems really easy to check is something is wrong (mostly there are reinforcements and starport deliveries with timers, hard to do a mistake there). Porting the smuggler/Fremen campaigns were harder because all the switching.

But yes, I will do (and play) all the levels. In the end I will upload everything I've done so far.

[Feda]

2 minutes ago, Cm_blast said:

Good to know. Then I will work in the Atreides Campaign and those 2 missions. At least the Campaign seems really easy to check is something is wrong (mostly there are reinforcements and starport deliveries with timers, hard to do a mistake there). Porting the smuggler/Fremen campaigns were harder because all the switching.

But yes, I will do (and play) all the levels. In the end I will upload everything I've done so far.

The Atreides campaign was the first 100% from scratch campaign ever made, back when the tools were much more primitive, so that's why it is so simple

[Cm_blast]

On 1/9/2016 at 4:05 PM, FedaYkin said:

The Atreides campaign was the first 100% from scratch campaign ever made, back when the tools were much more primitive, so that's why it is so simple

I know, yours wasn't the only one with those tools. In general all of those campaigns/mission I mentioned were done with similar tools. I did myselft a couple of campaigns too (like the "new house" and the "emperor + tibed", but I didn't use Shai Hulud's editor). But yes, I still was using that old editor (I remember how I mess up the Emperor one, by placing 90% of the reinforcements over a cliff, and then wondering why the enemy was so slow to coming).

Pd: By the way, Luminar's Fremen is completed too.

Question for Feda:
I played the three first missions of the game. The third level is easy just because the enemy is very passive (playing at a normal pace he never attacks me). The reason is because 4 preplaced tanks makes the IA to build a lots of weaker units, needing lots of time just to fill the "GuardGroupSize" valour.

I have 2 quick solutions for this:
1º: Switching the 4 ordos tanks into 4 smuggler tanks (Ordos index, mission win requires to kill them as well...) 
2º: Removing those tanks, so the IA can build a few of them, they will defend the base and the "GuardGroupSize" will be filled early (this way the 4 preplaced tanks aren't needed). <-- This is the easiest/quickest and less invasive solution, also I will be the one doing one of those 2, so you don't need to work on it.

Of course, there are other solutions, but I am not here to change valours to the Ia or add any unit spawn. And maybe you want the IA to be purely defensive, so maybe you don't even want to have those tanks switch/remove from the map. <-- Other levels already have continous reinforcementes/deliveries, so those missions are not affected by this problem. This is the reason I am focusing in this very single mission. --> Note: If you are wondering, mission 3 of your campaign is a single "destroy Ordos" where you start with a CY and 2 windtraps.

Edited September 2, 2016 by Cm_blast

[Gruntlord6]

 you wanted to convert the rise of the mercenaries missions that would be cool, might motivate me to finish

[Cm_blast]

5 hours ago, Gruntlord6 said:

 you wanted to convert the rise of the mercenaries missions that would be cool, might motivate me to finish

Sure, but technically those mission are already prepared to work with the launcher, even had their own menu screen.

It is just that they are as part of the Atreides missions (in the generic menu of the launcher), and they don't show any briefing in-game. On the other hand I can do a full swich from Atr to Mercs if it is that what you mean.

[Gruntlord6]

8 hours ago, Cm_blast said:

Sure, but technically those mission are already prepared to work with the launcher, even had their own menu screen.

It is just that they are as part of the Atreides missions (in the generic menu of the launcher), and they don't show any briefing in-game. On the other hand I can do a full swich from Atr to Mercs if it is that what you mean.

It's been awhile, your right. But an actual conversion would be cool since this was made before that was possible. Having the ingame briefings would also be cool rather then just being in the launcher. If you don't feel up to it I may do it myself later.

[Cm_blast]

8 hours ago, Gruntlord6 said:

It's been awhile, your right. But an actual conversion would be cool since this was made before that was possible. Having the ingame briefings would also be cool rather then just being in the launcher. If you don't feel up to it I may do it myself later.

It's ok, I can do it, I was planning to play sooner or later those maps too, so I can do the conversion and after that playing the maps checking, at the same time, that I didn't misplaced something wrong.

From there you can change or redo balance or whatever you want to do with the missions.

By the way gruntmod. In the webpage from "Rise of the mercenaries" said " 3 Exclusive new singleplayer levels developed by GruntMods Studios" but only 2 of them are as part of a demo. Just in case you want me to do the 3 maps.

[Gruntlord6]

8 hours ago, Cm_blast said:

It's ok, I can do it, I was planning to play sooner or later those maps too, so I can do the conversion and after that playing the maps checking, at the same time, that I didn't misplaced something wrong.

From there you can change or redo balance or whatever you want to do with the missions.

By the way gruntmod. In the webpage from "Rise of the mercenaries" said " 3 Exclusive new singleplayer levels developed by GruntMods Studios" but only 2 of them are as part of a demo. Just in case you want me to do the 3 maps.

3rd has been in the works for a while now, I've had a serious lack of motivation and time finishing it.

[Cm_blast]

15 hours ago, Gruntlord6 said:

3rd has been in the works for a while now, I've had a serious lack of motivation and time finishing it.

I see. Ok, I did the conversion of those two missions. In mission 1 as the editor allows it, I changed the initial 4 trikes for 4 raiders, since the raiders are the vehicles the mercs builds.

Your maps are using the original text.uib which you added a few extra lines. If you want I can just have those lines into the .ini files (the new editor already do that), so you don't need to use another tool or modifing the original text.uib.

Just this:

I just need to Ctrl+C the message, change the message ID to : 1, click on "Custom text" and paste it. this way it's possible to change the text in the same editor or even by just opening m2v1.ini with the notepad.

The number or fhe "Message ID" can be any, I always start with 1 and using a succession, but that's me, I can do it this way and, if later you prefer to use other numbers you can change it later (as I said, even with the notepad can be done).

Edited September 7, 2016 by Cm_blast

[Feda]

On 9/1/2016 at 6:05 PM, Cm_blast said:

I know, yours wasn't the only one with those tools. In general all of those campaigns/mission I mentioned were done with similar tools. I did myselft a couple of campaigns too (like the "new house" and the "emperor + tibed", but I didn't use Shai Hulud's editor). But yes, I still was using that old editor (I remember how I mess up the Emperor one, by placing 90% of the reinforcements over a cliff, and then wondering why the enemy was so slow to coming).

Pd: By the way, Luminar's Fremen is completed too.

Question for Feda:
I played the three first missions of the game. The third level is easy just because the enemy is very passive (playing at a normal pace he never attacks me). The reason is because 4 preplaced tanks makes the IA to build a lots of weaker units, needing lots of time just to fill the "GuardGroupSize" valour.

I have 2 quick solutions for this:
1º: Switching the 4 ordos tanks into 4 smuggler tanks (Ordos index, mission win requires to kill them as well...) 
2º: Removing those tanks, so the IA can build a few of them, they will defend the base and the "GuardGroupSize" will be filled early (this way the 4 preplaced tanks aren't needed). <-- This is the easiest/quickest and less invasive solution, also I will be the one doing one of those 2, so you don't need to work on it.

Of course, there are other solutions, but I am not here to change valours to the Ia or add any unit spawn. And maybe you want the IA to be purely defensive, so maybe you don't even want to have those tanks switch/remove from the map. <-- Other levels already have continous reinforcementes/deliveries, so those missions are not affected by this problem. This is the reason I am focusing in this very single mission. --> Note: If you are wondering, mission 3 of your campaign is a single "destroy Ordos" where you start with a CY and 2 windtraps.

I guess the second option would be ok. Whatever you feel you are more comfortable with, it's your call  Thanks for the help.

[Cm_blast]

1 hour ago, FedaYkin said:

I guess the second option would be ok. Whatever you feel you are more comfortable with, it's your call  Thanks for the help.

Yeah, but at the end is your mission. Ok, the tanks are removed from the map. Your welcome.

Tomorrow I will play the mission 9 of your campaign, and for there (win or lose... I'm sure I will lose XD) I will jump on the Rise of the Mercenaries missions. After that I will upload everything I did for now (there still some more maps to do).

[Gruntlord6]

8 hours ago, Cm_blast said:

I see. Ok, I did the conversion of those two missions. In mission 1 as the editor allows it, I changed the initial 4 trikes for 4 raiders, since the raiders are the vehicles the mercs builds.

Your maps are using the original text.uib which you added a few extra lines. If you want I can just have those lines into the .ini files (the new editor already do that), so you don't need to use another tool or modifing the original text.uib.

Just this:

I just need to Ctrl+C the message, change the message ID to : 1, click on "Custom text" and paste it. this way it's possible to change the text in the same editor or even by just opening m2v1.ini with the notepad.

The number or fhe "Message ID" can be any, I always start with 1 and using a succession, but that's me, I can do it this way and, if later you prefer to use other numbers you can change it later (as I said, even with the notepad can be done).

Using an ini is the proper solution so that would make the most sense.

[Cm_blast]

Ok, almost ready. I need to play the mission 2 from the Rise of the mercs and will upload everything I done so far.

By the way Feda, your maps from the Atr campaign have some tiles place in weird way, for example this map (Mission 2)

My converstion is about making campaigns/mission to work with the mission launcher, preserving the maps/events as they are (with exceptions). If you are planning (some day/year) to fix this type of terrain errors I'm just leave them alone, but if at this point you are very sure that you aren't going to touch then anymore in any time soon (or maybe never), I can be the one doing all the necessary changes to at least make them looks natural (of course, I just talk about obvious part as the screen above).

Edited September 8, 2016 by Cm_blast

[Cm_blast]

first post edited with a file attached. Still some missions to do.

[Gruntlord6]

On 9/8/2016 at 3:07 PM, Cm_blast said:

Ok, almost ready. I need to play the mission 2 from the Rise of the mercs and will upload everything I done so far.

By the way Feda, your maps from the Atr campaign have some tiles place in weird way, for example this map (Mission 2)

My converstion is about making campaigns/mission to work with the mission launcher, preserving the maps/events as they are (with exceptions). If you are planning (some day/year) to fix this type of terrain errors I'm just leave them alone, but if at this point you are very sure that you aren't going to touch then anymore in any time soon (or maybe never), I can be the one doing all the necessary changes to at least make them looks natural (of course, I just talk about obvious part as the screen above).

That isn't the right tileset, that's why it looks funky.

[Cm_blast]

7 hours ago, Gruntlord6 said:

That isn't the right tileset, that's why it looks funky.

Is not that, those cliffs are common to all the tilesets.
Back in time was a bit tedious opening a tileset, selecting the tile you want around the big menu, placing it into the editor, opening the tileset again, selecting another different again... even in this imagen you can see how he uses the same cliffs over and over.

Happens in other maps from this campaign too, although this map is the most obvious of all.

Edited September 11, 2016 by Cm_blast

[Gruntlord6]

Thought you were looking at m2v1

Edited September 11, 2016 by Gruntlord6

[Cm_blast]

First post edited to add the remaining missions. I didn't play the skorocel remakes, but at least they seems to work. If I missed something report to me, I could be mistake creating the zip or missing some files needed as .bin or text.uib or something.

[Cm_blast]

Ok, the forum hate me, 40 minutes to write the post and the forum say to me "nope".

So... in short. a new campaign mod added in the first post: Emperor reings.
The original post to that mod is here:
https://forum.dune2k.com/topic/26923-release-emperors-reign-campaign/#comment-389982

I updated this mod too, but since the last author activity was more than 1 year ago, I couldn't contact him.

Because of that, I didn't fully understand this line of him
-I suggest you use a program such as TibEd to give House Harkonnen use of the Imperial Palace and the Sardaukar, being that these missions use the Harkonnen index.

The Harkonnen have the palace in two missions, that's true, but if he loose it the game is over, so there is no point of allowing him to rebuild that (and he not use a "Practice" type of AI neither). Anyway, since he "suggest" to use TibEd, I use it to include the Imperial Palace for the player. This is not mandatory, the player will have the Imperial Palace but that's all. You still can build the Harkonnen Palace too. Feel free to use my ".bin" file or not. The game is not gonna change.

As a sidenote: missions with a modified outpost have periodical reinfocements with Sardaukar. Those Sardaukar are purple but uncontroled by the player. This is intended since depending of the level the author use Atreides/Harkonnen/Fremen/Ordos... with index=3, so totally intended by him.

Also: I played the whole campaign (in easy), so the events are working fine.

First post updated to include the mod.

Edited October 20, 2016 by Cm_blast

[Feda]

I'm not planning on touching those old missions anymore, so if you have time and if you want to fix those terrain issues feel free to do so  

 

The reason atr campaign maps look that bad is not only the fact they were the first made-from-scratch campaign to be released (tools were indeed much more primitive back then) but also the fact that I really sucked ass at mapping back then ;D

 

God, so many memories from that period.

[Cm_blast]

First I will start with a small note: the visuals from the Atreides campaign from Feda has been fixed, so right now all the rock areas, rifts and stuff should be connected more natural. Also sometimes a couple of tiles rock/sand went missing, so those are fixed too.

And now a new adition. The "time Based Smuggler" Campaign by Jbil89. His original post is here.
https://forum.dune2k.com/topic/26903-release-time-based-smugglers-campaign-protect-mercenaries-updated/

Like the others, has been ported to work with the launcher.

This is a particular case. I usually leave the events/conditions as the original, except if a wrong call make the game crash or not activating a main flag, needed to beat the mission. However, the author resorted to "copy-paste", making a good amount of events/conditions from previous maps to be there too, even when they aren't used.

I took the liberty to do a clean up of unused events/conditions (sometimes a casualties active a flag, but that flag doesn't affect the game at all). I hope I did not overdo it by deleting too much. 

The size of the mission 7 has been reduced a lot. The original map was 100x80, but only a very part of the whole map was used. I reduced it to a 26x50 (you can image how small the playable area was). I admit that I liked the map. Is a bit confusing because the way the author used the events and stuff. A couple of flags will give more/better control of the situation, but that's not my call. 

Anyway, I played the whole campaign, although I did it in easy and cheated (except a couple of missions), so I know that at least the mission win condition (and others) triggers at the right moment.

Warning: Is not recommended to play mission 9 on easy. Due to the hundreds of reinforcements (and it is not an exaggeration) the game can reach the limit of units and crash. In normal both sides are even, but in easy the mercs will dominate, but never end the attack because more and more reinforcements are comming stopping the advance. In the briefing itself I added a special note to warn about that problem. If you play in normal the game should work fine.

Now, the last thing. The english of the author is... let's say... debatable. I don't feel I should be the one redoing the briefing, since I am not exactly the best writer in english. This means the briefing stay as the author did. If someone want to rewrite the thing feel free to do it :P.

Edited January 12, 2017 by Cm_blast

[jbil1989]

i will edit (english) for briefing. my friend will help me for english  

[djbaskan60]

hi cm_blast , i can edit (for time based ...) and i will new campaign , Soon