Moddifying the Dune 2 EXE

[The_Legacy]

Greetings!

After many years of playing Dune II, and recently being inspired to play it once again, I've decided that I wanted to create a complete overhaul on the missions, and unit balancing. Specifically, I'd like to try to change some of the stats of the units, and, more importantly, I wanted to create an 'expert' mission mode, where the missions all start at mission 8 tech levels, where some missions will have different objectives or higher spice quotas, and existing enemy bases are heavily expanded upon, for all to provide late-game level challenges. Ultimately, I want to rework the existing campaign to make it a difficult fight all the way through, without changing the overall positions of the starting locations, but rather instead expanding on them. The motivation is because I believe the war would have started realistically with all the big weapons available to all commanders from the beginning, and that the player (and his/her foe) are limited in technology for learning purposes.

If I'm not mistaken, tech availability in the Construction Yard, Light Factories, Heavy Factories, and High Tech Factories are all based on hardcoded information in the EXE file (I've looked through the Dune II editor and I now know the different values you can set). Scenarios and Starport availability, as far as I know, are coded in the Scenario###.ini files, which is arguably the far easier part of the job. But, if I'm not mistaken, EXE editing is required to allow construction of later-game buildings, and I will need to edit the EXE anyway for some balance changes I wanted to make.

Using the Dune II Editor, I was able to locate hex values in the EXE, and I changed them to what I wanted. However, when I ran the EXE, I saw no changes. Do you know why this may be the case? Are there tutorials to hex editing the EXE? Is there anything I need to know?

Thanks.

 

P.S. For feedback purposes, I wanted to provide the changes I was thinking of doing, based on what I can see that is changeable:

- Increase maximum number of units and structures to the maximum the game engine allows.
- Adding the ability to capture ALL structure types, to allow a full-base-capture playstyle.
- Changing most unit commands from the default Attack / Move / Retreat / Guard to Attack / Move / Hunt / Area Guard, to facilitate proper unit defenses and co-ordinate mass assaults. (Note: Move changes to Guard automatically after movement, so replacing Guard essentially adds a fifth command).
- Allow the Atredies to build the WOR, and the Ordos the Launcher, after level 4, due to the increasing violence from the war triggering changes in policy (the fact that the Ordos can order Launchers in the Starport, and the Atredies can build Siege Tanks, which are substantially more powerful than Troopers, make this glaringly apparent).
- Changing the roles of Quads, Trikes, and Raider Trikes to proper scouts (large vision range) and modifying their machine guns to be dual-purpose anti-ground/anti-air to fill a badly needed role which the game only provides in the Troopers, Launcher, and Gun/Missile Turrets.
- Increasing Raider Trike damage and hit points to match standard Trike levels, while increasing costs to 200, in order to provide proper counterplay verses Quads and Trikes beyond scouting.
- Markedly increasing movement speed and increasing turret and chassis rotation of standard Tanks (similar to Dune 2000 levels, and, perhaps, to launcher levels but with better movement speed over sand), in order to give them a badly needed flanking advantage over Siege Tanks in a one-on-one battle (whereas Siege Tanks would keep their firepower and armor, making them superior in a head-on fight vs Tanks). This would reward players for micromanaging combats with tanks, but Siege Tanks would win in a fixed-position battle.
- Decrease Siege Tank costs from 600 to 500, to address the cost vs effectiveness ratio comparision between Tanks and Siege Tanks provided in another thread.
- Reducing sight range of Siege Tanks and Devastators to current Quad/Trike/Raider Trike levels, to compensate for the changes for Light Vehicles.
- Greatly increasing Devastator weapon damage while greatly reducing fire rate, making it an extremely powerful foe in singular fights, but that can be easily defeated against large numbers. Currently, the Devastator is essentially a bigger, badder Siege Tank, and can completely replace them in armies. This change would make using them en masse a risky strategy, due to their extremely low fire-rate post-change.
- Add a second missile launch for Deviators, in order to match Launcher fire output. Rate of fire would be reduced to compensate.
- Decrease cost of Soldier to 30, and Infantry Squads to 50, due to their extremely poor cost vs effectiveness ratio. Reduce Barracks upgrade cost to 100.
- Increase Troopers damage and armor to be equal to Tanks, and the Trooper as half that. Increase cost from 100/200 to 125/250 This is not only to make infantry tactics viable, but to dramatically increase the difficulty of Sadaukar Trooper deployments in Missions 4, 8 and 9, and to boost the effectiveness of the Atredies Fremen palace power. Their lower cost is compensated by their vulnerability to being run over.
- Change Ornithoper weapons from missiles to guns (as per the intro cinematic). Increase Ornithopter armor to 100 (compensated by the addition of effective mobile anti-air units).
- Remove upgrade requirement for MCV construction. Increase base cost of MCV's to 999 to compensate.
- Add ALL non-faction units to the Starport. Since the Starport delivers mercenaries to your force, it would make sense for Infantry and Troopers to be included in their offerings.
- Saboteurs will be rebalanced...somehow. Something to make them more effective. If there is some way to spawn multiple of them akin to how Fremen are deployed, this would be optimal, and appropriately terrifying.

Note that I will be balance testing all changes before release, and any suggestions are welcome.

[Nyerguds]

It's "Atreides", not "Atredies" 

On 9/12/2016 at 6:09 PM, The_Legacy said:

- Allow the Atredies to build the WOR, and the Ordos the Launcher, after level 4, due to the increasing violence from the war triggering changes in policy (the fact that the Ordos can order Launchers in the Starport, and the Atredies can build Siege Tanks, which are substantially more powerful than Troopers, make this glaringly apparent).

So you're basically saying to remove all house differences? Don't really see the point in that.

On 9/12/2016 at 6:09 PM, The_Legacy said:

- Add a second missile launch for Deviators, in order to match Launcher fire output. Rate of fire would be reduced to compensate.

Not sure what the logic is on that. The two units are completely different in purpose, and just share the same delivery mechanism. How is that a reason to make them act the same way?

On 9/12/2016 at 6:09 PM, The_Legacy said:

- Remove upgrade requirement for MCV construction. Increase base cost of MCV's to 999 to compensate.

That'll just make players always order it from the starport once they got one, though, since 999 is the maximum starport price; it can only be the same or cheaper there.

On 9/12/2016 at 6:09 PM, The_Legacy said:

- Saboteurs will be rebalanced...somehow. Something to make them more effective. If there is some way to spawn multiple of them akin to how Fremen are deployed, this would be optimal, and appropriately terrifying.

There are internal limits on the amount of saboteurs though. Only two of them (three in 1.00 IIRC) can exist on the battlefield at the same time.

One neat thing that could be done is lowering their target priority (I think that's editable in the editor), combined with giving them worm camouflage

Edited September 19, 2016 by Nyerguds

[TaxOwlbear]

On 19 September 2016 at 0:14 PM, Nyerguds said:

There are internal limits on the amount of saboteurs though. Only two of them (three in 1.00 IIRC) can exist on the battlefield at the same time.

Is there a reason for that. It's not like the saboteur is overpowered or anything.

[X3M]

Quote

- Increase maximum number of units and structures to the maximum the game engine allows.

Well, that is a given. But somehow, I like the limit of 25. But then again, if balance is done right. Why not more.

Quote

- Adding the ability to capture ALL structure types, to allow a full-base-capture playstyle.

This would be neat. But you will be needing to remove a lot of bugs.

Quote

- Changing most unit commands from the default Attack / Move / Retreat / Guard to Attack / Move / Hunt / Area Guard, to facilitate proper unit defenses and co-ordinate mass assaults. (Note: Move changes to Guard automatically after movement, so replacing Guard essentially adds a fifth command).

Area Guard is going to have the units to move out once an opponent is within (2 times) vision?

Quote

- Allow the Atredies to build the WOR, and the Ordos the Launcher, after level 4, due to the increasing violence from the war triggering changes in policy (the fact that the Ordos can order Launchers in the Starport, and the Atredies can build Siege Tanks, which are substantially more powerful than Troopers, make this glaringly apparent).

Like what Nyerguds said. I don't see the point either. I rather see more differences than less.

Quote

- Changing the roles of Quads, Trikes, and Raider Trikes to proper scouts (large vision range) and modifying their machine guns to be dual-purpose anti-ground/anti-air to fill a badly needed role which the game only provides in the Troopers, Launcher, and Gun/Missile Turrets.

Ornithopters are weak. So no extra AA on them, ok?

I do like the extra vision. But +1 is already a big area once they move.

Quote

- Increasing Raider Trike damage and hit points to match standard Trike levels, while increasing costs to 200, in order to provide proper counterplay verses Quads and Trikes beyond scouting.

I see now no point in Ordos having a Quad then. Which is open to debate.

Quote

- Markedly increasing movement speed and increasing turret and chassis rotation of standard Tanks (similar to Dune 2000 levels, and, perhaps, to launcher levels but with better movement speed over sand), in order to give them a badly needed flanking advantage over Siege Tanks in a one-on-one battle (whereas Siege Tanks would keep their firepower and armor, making them superior in a head-on fight vs Tanks). This would reward players for micromanaging combats with tanks, but Siege Tanks would win in a fixed-position battle.

I thought, this was already the case.

Quote

- Decrease Siege Tank costs from 600 to 500, to address the cost vs effectiveness ratio comparision between Tanks and Siege Tanks provided in another thread.

NO! As I can recall, they are well balanced. Even though the game play against AI let it look like that Siege Tank is stronger. Siege tanks are not weaker than combat tanks. Where is the thread that you are referring too? Meanwhile, I will try to find mine.

Quote

- Reducing sight range of Siege Tanks and Devastators to current Quad/Trike/Raider Trike levels, to compensate for the changes for Light Vehicles.

This makes no sense. Make changes on one side, not both. Or you get a jojo effect in order to find balance.

Quote

- Greatly increasing Devastator weapon damage while greatly reducing fire rate, making it an extremely powerful foe in singular fights, but that can be easily defeated against large numbers. Currently, the Devastator is essentially a bigger, badder Siege Tank, and can completely replace them in armies. This change would make using them en masse a risky strategy, due to their extremely low fire-rate post-change.

I hate them as how they are now. They never replace the siege tanks in my armies. So, why not. They are changed mechanically and playability. So green light from me on this one. A lower fire-rate doesn't make them weaker when they are amass. They will only be weaker when there is a 1 on 'n' fight.

Quote

- Add a second missile launch for Deviators, in order to match Launcher fire output. Rate of fire would be reduced to compensate.

This makes no sense.

Quote

- Decrease cost of Soldier to 30, and Infantry Squads to 50, due to their extremely poor cost vs effectiveness ratio. Reduce Barracks upgrade cost to 100.

Cheaper? Sure. But better would be, make them stronger instead? And faster. Reducing the Barracks upgrade cost makes less sense.

Quote

- Increase Troopers damage and armor to be equal to Tanks, and the Trooper as half that. Increase cost from 100/200 to 125/250 This is not only to make infantry tactics viable, but to dramatically increase the difficulty of Sadaukar Trooper deployments in Missions 4, 8 and 9, and to boost the effectiveness of the Atredies Fremen palace power. Their lower cost is compensated by their vulnerability to being run over.

I rather see them as "support" units, like the missile tank. +1 range for all troopers is already superior. Than a bit more damage too. +20%?

If you want to increase Sadaukar dificulty. Then only change them.

Fremen are OVERKILL!!!!

1 Palace is notching, but I often have like 10 palaces. Do you have any idea what 30 Trooper Squads can do? You will avert your eye's from the horror that you would never expect from troopers.

Quote

- Change Ornithoper weapons from missiles to guns (as per the intro cinematic). Increase Ornithopter armor to 100 (compensated by the addition of effective mobile anti-air units).

Hmmm, this might work actually.

Quote

- Remove upgrade requirement for MCV construction. Increase base cost of MCV's to 999 to compensate.

I rather see you keep this as how it is. And as Nyerguds said, all MCV will be purchased in the Starport. Maybe it is better to increase the upgrade cost to 450 or 600. And make the MCV in the Factory cheaper. 800 or 750? But in the end, I say no to any change regarding the MCV.

Quote

- Add ALL non-faction units to the Starport. Since the Starport delivers mercenaries to your force, it would make sense for Infantry and Troopers to be included in their offerings.

Actually, no. The CHOAM builds and sells equipment. If you want to change something about the Starport. Go crazy. Make it so that the units can be dropped any where on the map :). (Expecting comments on this one)

Quote

- Saboteurs will be rebalanced...somehow. Something to make them more effective. If there is some way to spawn multiple of them akin to how Fremen are deployed, this would be optimal, and appropriately terrifying.

Somewhere on the map? That would be terrifying indeed. But instead, how about keeping them alive for a longer time? I hate it if they blow up before they reach destination.
 

[Nyerguds]

On 9/21/2016 at 10:37 AM, TaxOwlbear said:

Is there a reason for that. It's not like the saboteur is overpowered or anything.

As far as I can see it's just for practical memory management related reasons. It's the same as with the sandworms; you can only have 2 of those as well.

For Saboteurs, well, not like you'll ever make an army of them. You can only control one unit at the time in Dune anyway, it takes ages for the palace to reload, and they automatically go towards their target straight away.

18 hours ago, X3M said:

Actually, no. The CHOAM builds and sells equipment. If you want to change something about the Starport. Go crazy. Make it so that the units can be dropped any where on the map :). (Expecting comments on this one)

You loco, man? The Guild does commerce, not high-risk military insertions!  Why do you think they only want to deliver once you got a nice big safe Starport anyway?

(Okay, they might do high-risk military insertions. But those cost extra )

Edited September 23, 2016 by Nyerguds

[X3M]

Hah, nice suggestion: drop any where option for $###.

I don't consider dropping on the starport to be safe.

Reminds me, is the enemy going to get starports this time? Dune2 never had these.

[The_Legacy]

After some playtesting, I'm starting to learn about what I can and cannot do. Before I go into responding to your comments (Thanks for the feedback!), I want to explain what I plan on doing.

I'm creating a new, reworked version of Dune 2 (using the original EXE on the v1.07 fix version) which reworks the entire campaign to be both far more challenging, and to give you most of the tech tree to start (namely, Palaces will be left until levels 8 and 9), the Atreides get the WOR at level 5, and the Ordos get the Launcher at level 6. Additionally, the Starport will be seeded with infantry and troopers, in addition to the standard full list. I intend to keep the storyline identical, but the inspiration is that, in the cinematics, I'd imagine the war would have all the houses deploying their full militaries early on. I figure that the tech tree buildup over the 9 missions is to teach players how to use the different units, but rather I want to see the war start on a high note, and keep its initiative for the entire game.

The purpose of the unit re-balancing is because I wanted to see all the different unit types used at all times; I'd imagine that most players will only use Infantry for capture, Quads/Trikes/Raider Trikes for finding the enemy base, Launchers for Artillery and Fog-Of-War removal, and Siege Tanks for destroying enemy units (with some flavor units thrown in). Ultimately, most units are forgotten as the tech tree level increases. Instead, I'd like to see these changes happen (which have already been successfully tested):

- Infantry and Soldiers are reduced in cost to make them more cost effective.
- Troopers are increased in cost, and buffed to both make them effective alternatives to vehicular frontline units, as well as increasing Sadaukar/Fremen difficulty.
- Quads, Trikes and Raider Trikes have greatly increased sight ranges, to make them truly effective scouts, at a low cost.
- Raider Trikes are buffed to equal the standard Trike for armor and firepower, have an even larger sight range than the Quads and Trikes, but now cost 200 for their increased value. Quads are still the king in firepower in the Light Vehicle category, however, so Ordos players would build Quads and Raider Trikes together.
- Quads, Trikes, and Raider Trikes now fire rapidly, trading damage per shot with sheer volume of fire. These vehicles can also shoot air units.
- Tanks get an increase in rate of fire, turret and chassis rotation speed, and movement speed, but lose damage per shot, to give them an interesting maneuvering mechanic.
- Siege Tanks will be kept the same after all (600 cost).
- All heavy vehicle units will lose their vision ranges. The larger the vehicle, the smaller the vision range is. This is because I don't think tanks should have as good vision ranges as base Dune 2 provides.
- Ornithopters now cost 400 instead of 600, to encourage further usage. I've successfully tested the use of gun sounds and sprites with Ornithopters, but it will only fire one shot at a time. Thus, I decided to keep it stock.
- Saboteurs now respawn in the palace in 150 seconds, instead of 300.
- Greatly increasing Devastator weapon damage while greatly reducing fire rate, making it an extremely powerful foe in singular fights, but that can be easily defeated against large numbers. Currently, the Devastator is essentially a bigger, badder Siege Tank, and can completely replace them in armies. This change would make using them en masse a risky strategy, due to their extremely low fire-rate post-change.
- Outposts, Palaces, WOR's, Barracks, and all other non-capturable structures can now be captured. (This has been successfully tested as working, by enabling the building of Infantry/Soldiers for the Harkonnen, while keeping their access to building the barracks as blocked. The same applies for the Atreides and the WOR)
- Most units now replace the Retreat command with Hunt.

I'm running into the following issues, however, and I'd like your advice on this:

- I'm unable to adjust when the Ordos get access to the WOR. I want the Harkonnen and the Ordos to have access to the WOR at level 1 for the campaign, while I want the Atreides get it at level 5.
- I want to allow Construction Yards to be build inside Construction Yards; this works ingame, but the issue is that I can place it anywhere I can see rock. How can I prevent them from being built outside of physical touch of other structures?
- I want Quads, Trikes, and Raider Trikes to be able to engage Ornithopters automatically. How do I get these units (as well as Troopers and Launchers) to engage them?
- I want Area Guard to be based on the position of where the unit is currently stopped, instead of where the unit was first created. How do I fix this?
- Is there a way to increase the maximum air unit count, and maximum structure counts?
- Is there a way to change how palace powers work? IE. How Fremen are deployed, number of deployed units, type of units, etc.

On 9/19/2016 at 7:14 AM, Nyerguds said:

It's "Atreides", not "Atredies" 

Oh. Whoops. XD Sorry.

On 9/19/2016 at 7:14 AM, Nyerguds said:

So you're basically saying to remove all house differences? Don't really see the point in that.

Changing the availability of units is moreso the case, that I find it strange that the Atreides, a peace and life-loving house, would prefer to send weakly armored and armed soldiers after the much more powerful Harkonnen (and, in some cases, Ordos) units, particularly the Troopers. I find that Soldiers and Infantry are practically useless in standard Dune, but with the cost reductions I tried, I found that the AI creates massive swarms of them, and they can actually do some damage. That said, I think that, politically speaking, the Atreides would eventually relent to activating the Trooper units. Preferably, in the case of the advanced mission pack that I'm co-currently designing with these changes, I'd like to make it so that the Ordos and the Harkonnen start with the WOR at level 1, and the Atredies at level 5, when they have a change of heart. A good argument for this change is that, if the Atredies are so against violence, then why are they building Siege Tanks and Rocket Launchers? And why can the Harkonnen buy Trikes, and the Ordos Rocket Launchers, in the Starport? I believe that doctrines in war can shift to face an ever-escalating situation, and that's why I'm considering enabling these units at a higher level.

On 9/19/2016 at 7:14 AM, Nyerguds said:

Not sure what the logic is on that. The two units are completely different in purpose, and just share the same delivery mechanism. How is that a reason to make them act the same way?

I was just considering that launchers fire two missiles, whereas the Deviator fires one. I felt that the Deviator should fire two as a result. The slower rate of fire would compensate for its improved first-strike capability. But this doesn't -need- to be added.

On 9/19/2016 at 7:14 AM, Nyerguds said:

That'll just make players always order it from the starport once they got one, though, since 999 is the maximum starport price; it can only be the same or cheaper there.

There are internal limits on the amount of saboteurs though. Only two of them (three in 1.00 IIRC) can exist on the battlefield at the same time.

One neat thing that could be done is lowering their target priority (I think that's editable in the editor), combined with giving them worm camouflage

Perhaps. Yeah, I'll keep things the same (maybe reduce the cost of an MCV?) As an alternative, I'm considering allowing Construction Yard building in the Construction Yard itself. In testing, it works well, but the downside is that you can place them ANYWHERE there is rock. I'm not sure how to restrict them to being built around existing structures. Any advice on this would be appreciated.

On 9/19/2016 at 7:14 AM, Nyerguds said:

There are internal limits on the amount of saboteurs though. Only two of them (three in 1.00 IIRC) can exist on the battlefield at the same time.

One neat thing that could be done is lowering their target priority (I think that's editable in the editor), combined with giving them worm camouflage

Duly noted. That's actually a great idea. Weren't saboteurs invisible in version v1.0? I can definitely make these changes, on top of the reduction on the palace power.

[The_Legacy]

On 9/22/2016 at 1:53 PM, X3M said:

This (base-capture style gameplay) would be neat. But you will be needing to remove a lot of bugs.

So far, I haven't run into any. I'll let you know if I do. If you mean the Carryall bug with the Barracks, that was an easy fix, by enabling Infantry and Soldiers for the Harkonnen. Since they can't build the Barracks, enabling these units won't affect that balance.

On 9/22/2016 at 1:53 PM, X3M said:

Area Guard is going to have the units to move out once an opponent is within (2 times) vision?

I believe so. If I could get Area Guard to work as intended, this should give your units a more hands-off approach, giving you time to work on other tasks. Very useful in the harder campaign.

On 9/22/2016 at 1:53 PM, X3M said:

Ornithopters are weak. So no extra AA on them, ok?

The problem is, is that when your units are being shot at by air units outside your base, it leaves you practically defenseless with only one unit type (two for the Ordos) to shoot them down. This would fix that issue. To compensate, I want to decrease the cost of Ornithopters to 400, so that mass-aerial tactics are viable. I was originally going to boost their hit points, but then I realized that they can easily kill an unprepared base, and they're hard enough to kill as it is.

On 9/22/2016 at 1:53 PM, X3M said:

I see now no point in Ordos having a Quad then. Which is open to debate.

There definitely is; the Quad will still handily beat a Trike/Raider Trike in a one-on-one fight. It's instead a question on whether you want scouting ability or damage.

On 9/22/2016 at 1:53 PM, X3M said:

This makes no sense. Make changes on one side, not both. Or you get a jojo effect in order to find balance.

I may not have been clear enough when I wrote it up; basically, I'd like to see Light Vehicles to be used as scouts (with vision ranges to match), while Heavy Vehicles have limited ranges, due to their enclosed chassis and such. Launchers, Deviators and Sonic Tanks I can imagine being an mild exception; though I nerfed them from 5 to 3, they still have respectable ranges.

On 9/22/2016 at 1:53 PM, X3M said:

I hate them as how they are now. They never replace the siege tanks in my armies. So, why not. They are changed mechanically and playability. So green light from me on this one. A lower fire-rate doesn't make them weaker when they are amass. They will only be weaker when there is a 1 on 'n' fight.

Thanks. I'll keep that one in, then.

On 9/22/2016 at 1:53 PM, X3M said:

(Deviator changes) make no sense.

It's just a thought. I've covered it above.

On 9/22/2016 at 1:53 PM, X3M said:

Cheaper? Sure. But better would be, make them stronger instead? And faster. Reducing the Barracks upgrade cost makes less sense.

I've considered that too. It would have to be a careful balancing act. It's worth a try, because Soldiers and Infantry are practically useless.

On 9/22/2016 at 1:53 PM, X3M said:

I rather see them as "support" units, like the missile tank. +1 range for all troopers is already superior. Than a bit more damage too. +20%?

If you want to increase Sadaukar dificulty. Then only change them.

Fremen are OVERKILL!!!!

1 Palace is notching, but I often have like 10 palaces. Do you have any idea what 30 Trooper Squads can do? You will avert your eye's from the horror that you would never expect from troopers.

They would make decent support units. I could consider making that change. I've already boosted their damage significantly (at this point, I think they're a tad TOO strong), because a damage of 4 (per shot) is quite low, considering the Siege Tank's 30 (per shot).

I cannot change the Fremen/Sadaukar specifically, because they all use the same unit type (Trooper/Troopers). There is no actual special unit for these factions. Thus, a buff to Troopers is also a buff to these powers. I felt that buffing the Troopers addresses both of these issues.

As for the 10 Palaces, I just did that earlier today. You're absolutely right, but there's a big problem: It costs a lot of credits, you need a lot of room, and you need a lot of defenses. With the new campaign, it would be extremely difficult to deploy that many palaces uncontested, especially since I plan on having multiple enemy bases from very different angles, plus random enemy attack groups from all angles.

On 9/22/2016 at 1:53 PM, X3M said:

Hmmm, this (Ornithopters with guns) might work actually.

Indeed it does. Only issue is that it only fires one round per attack run. I decided to keep it as a missile attack instead. as a result.

On 9/22/2016 at 1:53 PM, X3M said:

I rather see you keep this as how it is. And as Nyerguds said, all MCV will be purchased in the Starport. Maybe it is better to increase the upgrade cost to 450 or 600. And make the MCV in the Factory cheaper. 800 or 750? But in the end, I say no to any change regarding the MCV.

You're right. I think I may make it cheaper, and/or allow Construction Yard building in the Construction Yard. I've covered that above.

On 9/22/2016 at 1:53 PM, X3M said:

Actually, no. The CHOAM builds and sells equipment. If you want to change something about the Starport. Go crazy. Make it so that the units can be dropped any where on the map :). (Expecting comments on this one)

They may sell equipment, but who pilots said equipment? Unless they're manned on location.

Even if we use that logic, military uniforms/body armor/guns/etc can also theoretically be purchased there, making the same point valid.

But....hot drop o'clock? O.O That would be amazing...if there was a way.

On 9/22/2016 at 1:53 PM, X3M said:

Somewhere on the map? That would be terrifying indeed. But instead, how about keeping them alive for a longer time? I hate it if they blow up before they reach destination.

True. I actually tried to make it work like a Fremen-styled drop, except it only drops one or two. My question is, how does one re-script the Palace powers?

Thanks for your feedback, everyone! ^_^

[Nyerguds]

On 9/23/2016 at 9:53 PM, The_Legacy said:

I was just considering that launchers fire two missiles, whereas the Deviator fires one. I felt that the Deviator should fire two as a result. The slower rate of fire would compensate for its improved first-strike capability. But this doesn't -need- to be added.

Actually, given the fact deviation chance is a factor in this game, this will change the behaviour a lot; it'll give every salvo of the Deviator double chances of deviating a unit.

On 9/23/2016 at 9:53 PM, The_Legacy said:

Duly noted. That's actually a great idea. Weren't saboteurs invisible in version v1.0? I can definitely make these changes, on top of the reduction on the palace power.

The fact they were invisible in 1.00 was actually a bug, as far as I know; after all the unit always had graphics.

[X3M]

8 hours ago, Nyerguds said:

Actually, given the fact deviation chance is a factor in this game, this will change the behaviour a lot; it'll give every salvo of the Deviator double chances of deviating a unit.

I rather see them firing 1 missile. Yet having a lower ROF. So that they can deviate more units.

This way, amass light units would work better to counter these deviators.

[The_Legacy]

Sounds like this idea for Deviators is quite...polarizing.

You're right in that two shots would, in effect, double the chance for Deviation. But, what if fire rate was also halved? In other words, same rate of fire overall, but, you get an alpha-strike ability in an attempt to turn a target, but, once fired, you're sitting for a -long- time before they're ready to fire again, and will likely require them to retreat after every volley.

What do you think?

[Nyerguds]

To still get the same effect, actually, the deviation chance should simply be changed, not the ROF of the unit.

[The_Legacy]

I'll definitely keep that in mind. I did notice the chance of deviation, and simply halving it could give me the option to have dual fire. Or...something.

Anyway, I wanted to reiterate a part of my earlier post, regarding some roadblocks I've found with modding thus far. Can you find out whether these are doable?

On 9/23/2016 at 3:53 PM, The_Legacy said:

I'm running into the following issues, however, and I'd like your advice on this:

- I'm unable to adjust when the Ordos get access to the WOR. I want the Harkonnen and the Ordos to have access to the WOR at level 1 for the campaign, while I want the Atreides get it at level 5.
- I want to allow Construction Yards to be build inside Construction Yards; this works ingame, but the issue is that I can place it anywhere I can see rock. How can I prevent them from being built outside of physical touch of other structures?
- I want Quads, Trikes, and Raider Trikes to be able to engage Ornithopters automatically. How do I get these units (as well as Troopers and Launchers, for that matter) to engage them?
- Is there a way to increase the maximum air unit count, and maximum structure counts?
- Is there a way to change how palace powers work? IE. How Fremen are deployed, number of deployed units, type of units, etc.

 

[X3M]

Doubling the chance to deviate?

Please consider it halving the chance to not deviate. If you use 2 missiles.

Because 2x 50% where 1 result and 2 results both still yield 1, is 75%.

2 x 40% gives 64%.

2 x 30% gives 51%.

Etc.

[Nyerguds]

On 29/09/2016 at 8:19 PM, The_Legacy said:

I'll definitely keep that in mind. I did notice the chance of deviation, and simply halving it could give me the option to have dual fire. Or...something.

Anyway, I wanted to reiterate a part of my earlier post, regarding some roadblocks I've found with modding thus far. Can you find out whether these are doable?

Well, you insist on hacking the exe to get it done... and let me tell you, disassembling and hacking DOS exe files is a giant mess. There are threads around that document these things somewhere on the forum, but you'll have to dig through them yourself. also not sure if they'd actually have the exact addresses to edit, or just snippets of ASM code found there.

In my opinion, you're much better off just recompiling it from the decompiled OpenDune sources, like Dynasty did.

Doubling the chance to deviate?

Please consider it halving the chance to not deviate. If you use 2 missiles.

Because 2x 50% where 1 result and 2 results both still yield 1, is 75%.

2 x 40% gives 64%.

2 x 30% gives 51%.

Etc.

Actually, there's also accuracy to consider. This gives the chance in case both missiles hit spot on, but launchers are quite inaccurate, which lowers the chance. I think halving the deviation chance will probably be too much reduction.

Edited October 3, 2016 by Nyerguds

[The_Legacy]

Alright, I'll give OpenDune a try. Thanks.

[X3M]

Nyerguds, I didn't say reduce the chance to deviate. I said reduce the chance to NOT deviate. His math was kinda off in that regard. And it is important to know what you are saying about whether deviating or not.

 

For example, doubling a chance of 50% is 100%. Having 2x 50% is actually 75%. That is what I meant.

75% is not 100%.

[drnovice]

Hello again The_Legacy,

have you tried to read my PDFs?

https://forum.dune2k.com/topic/24707-hex-editing-collection-on-exe/?page=1

If you don't understand anything, don't worry, I can give you a little support.

[The_Legacy]

Thanks drnovice! I'll let you know once things in my life are more settled.