Playing around with the D2k campaign

[Feda]

Honestly, I am more interested in the smuggler campaign than the others right now, out of a sudden  The reason is that I like the way you draw the smuggler profile in the story. There is some smuggler campaign released, but that one did not catch the real smuggler view at all, it's rather giving you the feeling that the smugglers are one of the huge and powerful houses. I admit, even my mercenary campaign doesn't show the real purpose of the mercenaries (I was younger and more inexperienced when i made it  ). I would really love to see your smuggler campaign become a thing, as I have a feeling your story will be something that I will enjoy a lot

 

A little bit of off-topic, so sorry about it, but all these discussions that we've had the last few days kind of revived some motivation for me to continue some projects that I wanted to make but never started, due to lack of motivation (as the forums were dead, so pretty much no one to play the missions). One of them was the mercenary campaign; i was planning to remake it and combine it with the War of Assassins timeline; the reason is that the old campaign, as I said, did not catch the "mercenary"feeling the way I want it to, and also the War of Assassins universe is pretty complex, and the mercenaries were not shown too much in the story, and they kinda got blown up badly in the expansion by one of their former employees, if you played it you know what I mean, if not, no spoilers for you in case you'll ever want to play it . So on short, the campaign will show the mercenary perspective from War of Assassins, that was not seen in the campaign. Do you think this campaign is a good idea? I had serious motivation issues with Dune recently, and I'm glad that cm_blast, for example, did not lose it (he released plenty of missions with the forum dead).

[Cm_blast]

  On 12/9/2016 at 1:04 PM, FedaYkin said:

Honestly, I am more interested in the smuggler campaign than the others right now, out of a sudden  The reason is that I like the way you draw the smuggler profile in the story. There is some smuggler campaign released, but that one did not catch the real smuggler view at all, it's rather giving you the feeling that the smugglers are one of the huge and powerful houses. I admit, even my mercenary campaign doesn't show the real purpose of the mercenaries (I was younger and more inexperienced when i made it  ). I would really love to see your smuggler campaign become a thing, as I have a feeling your story will be something that I will enjoy a lot

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Is hard to do when Smugglers are just "Ordos with another colour". I tried a small aproach with a mini-campaign. At least there the enemy has more raw power than you. Ordos have tanks, but they only use infantry (they didn't want to destroy but steal). And in mission 3 the Atreides are not a single ally with a base you don't care, but they actually send units to protect your base patrolling it.

Some missions of your merc campaign are close to the idea of them, at least I like the general feeling of some of them.

  On 12/9/2016 at 1:04 PM, FedaYkin said:

and I'm glad that cm_blast, for example, did not lose it (he released plenty of missions with the forum dead).

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I am even doing "engrish" translations from my missions XD.
I accept donations, send me your money at my bank account ***********R

Edit: nevermind.
Uou have everything under control

Edited December 9, 2016 by Cm_blast
nevermind

[Fey]

  On 12/9/2016 at 1:04 PM, FedaYkin said:

Honestly, I am more interested in the smuggler campaign than the others right now, out of a sudden  The reason is that I like the way you draw the smuggler profile in the story. There is some smuggler campaign released, but that one did not catch the real smuggler view at all, it's rather giving you the feeling that the smugglers are one of the huge and powerful houses. I admit, even my mercenary campaign doesn't show the real purpose of the mercenaries (I was younger and more inexperienced when i made it  ). I would really love to see your smuggler campaign become a thing, as I have a feeling your story will be something that I will enjoy a lot

 

A little bit of off-topic, so sorry about it, but all these discussions that we've had the last few days kind of revived some motivation for me to continue some projects that I wanted to make but never started, due to lack of motivation (as the forums were dead, so pretty much no one to play the missions). One of them was the mercenary campaign; i was planning to remake it and combine it with the War of Assassins timeline; the reason is that the old campaign, as I said, did not catch the "mercenary"feeling the way I want it to, and also the War of Assassins universe is pretty complex, and the mercenaries were not shown too much in the story, and they kinda got blown up badly in the expansion by one of their former employees, if you played it you know what I mean, if not, no spoilers for you in case you'll ever want to play it . So on short, the campaign will show the mercenary perspective from War of Assassins, that was not seen in the campaign. Do you think this campaign is a good idea? I had serious motivation issues with Dune recently, and I'm glad that cm_blast, for example, did not lose it (he released plenty of missions with the forum dead).

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I'm flattered! Thank you very much.

Despite the... caution, in figuring out what the heck I'm gonna do with the campaign, I still remain skeptical on a few things. Rowe has a pretty not-so-Duney name, but the Smugglers are pretty much non-canon, and I figure that maybe they'd recruit folks from any sort of background, but there's no way to be sure about that, or even that such names exist in the future when Dune occurs. I looked up house and name origins, like the Atreides have a... Greek? I think it was Greek, background, so I changed Cyril's surname to something more Greek. But, perhaps that's just being nit-picky...

It's quite encouraging that you believe in its potential, and I'm quite motivated to continue working on it. I'll keep you posted.

As for the 'off topic' thing, YES, in all caps and bold. It's absolutely a good idea. Go patch up that campaign the way you want to, with the perspective and knowledge you have now. Maybe you'll come up with more new ideas as you work on it. But if there's a single rule I MUST emphasize, it's that you don't fix it if it ain't broken. It's really easy to be overly skeptical of your own work, pretty much every content creator deals with that doubt, so if you can't reach a conclusion on whether something is fitting or appropriate, or if you want another perspective on anything, just get a secondary opinion. I'm sure you already know this, but hey, you asked for my two cents! So I'm giving em.

  On 12/9/2016 at 1:45 PM, Cm_blast said:

Is hard to do when Smugglers are just "Ordos with another colour". I tried a small aproach with a mini-campaign. At least there the enemy has more raw power than you. Ordos have tanks, but they only use infantry (they didn't want to destroy but steal). And in mission 3 the Atreides are not a single ally with a base you don't care, but they actually send units to protect your base patrolling it.

Some missions of your merc campaign are close to the idea of them, at least I like the general feeling of some of them.

I am even doing "engrish" translations from my missions XD.
I accept donations, send me your money at my bank account ***********R

By the way Fey. I saw your map and want to say something.
Those three bases are controled by the same AI or they are different? 

If those 3 bases really are owned to the same AI, then there is a problem (except if you are doing it on purpose).
Maybe you are not aware about the "Dange zone" (I like to call). The danger zone is a rectangle area which cover the buildings of the AI. The units will patrol that area and if the player enter he will retaliate.

The problem is, this dange zone involve ALL their buildings. I show you this image.
The area I painted is the actual "dange zone" of this AI.

Almost the full map. Yes, the area cover that giang square/rectangle, and because the player already starts in that area, the Emperor will all the units in a all in, resulting in "I train a infantry, I attack with a infantry, I build a Trike, I attack with the trike", and no defence at all

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Yeah. Gameplay-wise, it's kinda tough to figure out exactly how such similar factions, especially with such an old and relatively simple game, would fit into a lengthy campaign, but I think that's where story comes in. You can use the context of their situation to create unique missions! I'm not sure exactly how gameplay would be affected just yet, how it can be preserved or anything, but I'm eager to find out.

Aye, about the AIs, those are three different AIs. I just used the allocation indexes to paint everything as part of the same team for the sake of a map preview. Can't spoil how the AI works, right? I learned about the danger zone while screwing around with a huge base on another map, so I now know to work around it somehow, unless I want a trickle of units bum-rushing your turrets...

[Feda]

I'll redo it from scratch, not going to edit the old one, and it won't be called like that either. Makes more sense to start it over from the beginning, since it will use a completely different timeline (war of assassins). Thanks for the 2 cents, btw  

 

I'm going to have a look at your Ordos and Harkonnen missions this evening and post the feedback for them, as promised.

[Feda]

Alright, I played them and the missions work well, at least I didn't encounter any problems. One thing that i noticed: O3V1, the FFA mission, works pretty well until both sides turn hostile towards you. From there on, it really becomes a 1v2, as they no longer attack each other at all because you are the closest target. Considering they have pretty much full tech except special house tanks, and you only have light vehicles, this turns out to be kind of frustrating at some point. I was pretty quick to kill the Harks, i razed most of their base but I'm assuming there are multiple houses with same index there, because the amount of defense in terms of units that the Harks have is very big, therefore i was unable to finish them because, even thought i was having everything under control, i suddenly started to receive constant attacks from the Atreides. That made me relocate all my stuff to defend, and i could never really gather up enough troops to send them and finish the harks because they defend very well and the Atreides attack very very often, forcing me to allocate most of my army for defense. In my opinion, this could be improved a bit, maybe by changing the base locations or something, dunno.

 

Also, regarding the same mission, I recommend using those map reveal events where it is possible, so that the player can watch the battle between the Atreides and Harkonnen. Considering that trying to scout the terrain will trigger them to turn hostile quickly, i'd say putting some reveals in those regions where the diplomacy trigger would not fire is a good thing to do. After all, that's the beauty of a FFA mission: to be able to watch your enemies killing each other  For the rest of the missions, as you said, the difficulty should be adjusted a bit. For example A4V1 feels quite difficult for a 4th mission if you ask me.

 

Overall, well done! Hope you'll keep working on them + releasing some more, and also, that smuggler campaign

Edited December 9, 2016 by FedaYkin

[Fey]

  On 12/9/2016 at 7:53 PM, FedaYkin said:

I'll redo it from scratch, not going to edit the old one, and it won't be called like that either. Makes more sense to start it over from the beginning, since it will use a completely different timeline (war of assassins). Thanks for the 2 cents, btw  

 

I'm going to have a look at your Ordos and Harkonnen missions this evening and post the feedback for them, as promised.

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Any time.

And yay! I came back so late, I don't have to wait for a reply!

  On 12/9/2016 at 11:32 PM, FedaYkin said:

Alright, I played them and the missions work well, at least I didn't encounter any problems. One thing that i noticed: O3V1, the FFA mission, works pretty well until both sides turn hostile towards you. From there on, it really becomes a 1v2, as they no longer attack each other at all because you are the closest target. Considering they have pretty much full tech except special house tanks, and you only have light vehicles, this turns out to be kind of frustrating at some point. I was pretty quick to kill the Harks, i razed most of their base but I'm assuming there are multiple houses with same index there, because the amount of defense in terms of units that the Harks have is very big, therefore i was unable to finish them because, even thought i was having everything under control, i suddenly started to receive constant attacks from the Atreides. That made me relocate all my stuff to defend, and i could never really gather up enough troops to send them and finish the harks because they defend very well and the Atreides attack very very often, forcing me to allocate most of my army for defense. In my opinion, this could be improved a bit, maybe by changing the base locations or something, dunno.

 

Also, regarding the same mission, I recommend using those map reveal events where it is possible, so that the player can watch the battle between the Atreides and Harkonnen. Considering that trying to scout the terrain will trigger them to turn hostile quickly, i'd say putting some reveals in those regions where the diplomacy trigger would not fire is a good thing to do. After all, that's the beauty of a FFA mission: to be able to watch your enemies killing each other  For the rest of the missions, as you said, the difficulty should be adjusted a bit. For example A4V1 feels quite difficult for a 4th mission if you ask me.

 

Overall, well done! Hope you'll keep working on them + releasing some more, and also, that smuggler campaign

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Wonderful. So A1V1 needs triggers to be fixed. Will do.

Aye, in O3V1 they stay neutral towards you for... lemme check the trigger time... ah, here it is. Minor AIs become aggressive at 18,000 tics and 27,000 tics respectively, and major AIs become aggressive at 25,000 and 37,500 tics respectively. Probably a sloppy system to begin with; in the revised draft 3, I plan on alerting the player to what's happening with dialogue between the Harkonnen and Atreides commanders either to each-other or to the Ordos commander. That should give you enough time to adjust your strategy before the AI goes poking at your door.

I'm not sure adjusting the distance between your bases will do any good; the AI seems to attack you no matter what, after they're hostile to you. But on the plus side, your proximity to the valley where the Harkonnen base is located will definitely help you defeat them more easily. Especially with the new changes in mind.

The unique aspect about the O3V1 AIs is that they're exceptionally difficult - even without the tanks - to begin with. There are only two functional AIs; the third was there when I didn't know I could make the AI stop rebuilding its stuff. It's really a great idea to approach the destruction of the Harkonnen base quickly and without prolonged 'detection.' That's intended, but they're rather overtuned right now, and the hostility triggers are a bit too sensitive. The tanks are actually delivered to each team every 9,000 tics, and they're meant to use them against each-other, but for some reason the AI decides to use them to defend the base, despite telling them to "hunt" with them. Go figure! Although, in the new editor, there's not even an option to tell them to do something with their starport delivered-units, so I guess that never worked to begin with. That's unfortunate.

About the map reveals: In the second draft you played through, the Atreides were kind of a surprise, since I couldn't really change the briefing or anything. I still don't want to spoil the map, I think taking a raider around to scout out the middle of the map is rewarding for how risky it is, so I would like to avoid using map reveals unless there's a critical structure that needs destroying (A1V1, construction yard), or a part of the base you start with that's shrouded (A4V1, Spice field). With the further-reduced hostility triggers and warnings if you go too far in, it should be easier to scout the base entrance and the rest of the map - provided you don't stick around in the middle of Atreides and Harkonnen attacking each-other - and the expanded briefing will help to advise the player of preferable strategies... without giving too much away, of course.

So, yeah, I'll fix that mission up in the next draft, for sure.

A4V1? I dunno, that was one of the easier ones for me, for some reason. I'll have another look at it and see if I screwed something up.

I'd really love to hear your opinion on H3V1 in particular. The enemy has a turret-laden choke point for their base entrance and slaughters your Troopers with Grenadiers as you try to make your entrance. The only side entrance is infantry-only, too. How does that one feel?

Thanks so much for the feedback, man. It really helps. If you think of anything else, just lemme know.

P.S. - I can send you the Smuggler mission as well, if you'd like. It's the very first draft of level 1 and it's pretty short, even for level 1, but hey, there's more to it than meets the eye and I'd benefit from any feedback on it whatsoever!

[Cm_blast]

  On 12/10/2016 at 10:17 AM, Fey said:

I'm not sure adjusting the distance between your bases will do any good; the AI seems to attack you no matter what, after they're hostile to you. But on the plus side, your proximity to the valley where the Harkonnen base is located will definitely help you defeat them more easily. Especially with the new changes in mind.

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Do you both wanna bet? 😃

 

Take this file. unzip.
Open the editor. Press test.
Save the game and load (so the full map is revealed)
Do nothing and see by your own eyes the fight.

No events involved except the reveal map and unit spawn
Default editor alliance (no alliances at all)

  Reveal hidden contents

Now you can send a check and kneel before me.

 

Edited October 22, 2019 by Cm_blast
link shoul work now

[Feda]

  On 12/10/2016 at 1:59 PM, Cm_blast said:

Do you both wanna bet? =)

free for all for real.rarFetching info...

Take this file. unzip.
Open the editor. Press test.
Save the game and load (so the full map is revealed)
Do nothing and see by your own eyes the fight.

No events involved except the reveal map and unit spawn
Default editor alliance (no alliances at all)

  Reveal hidden contents

Now you can send a check and kneel before me.

 

Expand  

Well, I would build a statue for you, but the link does not work

 

Fey, oh I totally forgot about that mission. Yea, it was kind of frustrating, too frustrating for a mission 3  The problem is that there are probably many AI players sharing the same space, so their defence is absolutely insane. They have shitloads of units in the base, which makes it hell to penetrate. The infantry passage on the left is useless in my opinion, because the atreides send too many units there in order to be able to pass. Their attacks do not pose a threat at all, however their defense is too strong. I would tweak a bit the amount of defense the AI has, and also maybe add some more spice near the player base, the rest of the mission is fine

[Cm_blast]

  On 12/10/2016 at 2:28 PM, FedaYkin said:

Well, I would build a statue for you, but the link does not work

 

Fey, oh I totally forgot about that mission. Yea, it was kind of frustrating, too frustrating for a mission 3  The problem is that there are probably many AI players sharing the same space, so their defence is absolutely insane. They have shitloads of units in the base, which makes it hell to penetrate. The infantry passage on the left is useless in my opinion, because the atreides send too many units there in order to be able to pass. Their attacks do not pose a threat at all, however their defense is too strong. I would tweak a bit the amount of defense the AI has, and also maybe add some more spice near the player base, the rest of the mission is fine

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Try now. I think I press "edit" the post but then cancel and went wrong

 

Edited December 10, 2016 by Cm_blast

[Fey]

Cm - Ah, well, then I suppose it does matter. Some of them still came to attack me, particularly the Atreides base in the northwest, but the AIs attacked each-other too.

Great! Maybe I can make some change that'll improve AI preferences.

While I kneel to almost no-one, I give you props for finding that Thank you very much.

Feda - Thanks for the feedback. Yeah, it's absolute hell to penetrate, I agree lol. Now that I can tweak the AI, I'll definitely be doing something about that. And hopefully making the infantry entrance more useful. And I'll reconsider the amount of spice near the player's base, too.

You like the mod at all, at least for the first few levels? How do the Grenadiers feel as a standard unit for all factions? The Atreides already got a unique thing at tech level 6 - Ornithopters - so I thought it would be okay to do something with the Grenadiers. Harkonnen and Ordos tech level 6 counterparts are Sardaukar and Stealth Raiders, respectively.

Please do lemme know if you think of anything else that's either great and I should keep doing, or terrible and I should change. Thanks again!

Edit: By the way, I also started work on Smugglers level 2! Seems I will be doing the campaign after all! Have I said 'thanks' enough for the awesome work everyone has done on the editing tools? I really appreciate it <3

Edited December 10, 2016 by Fey
More news!

[Cm_blast]

  On 12/10/2016 at 3:51 PM, Fey said:

Cm - Ah, well, then I suppose it does matter. Some of them still came to attack me, particularly the Atreides base in the northwest, but the AIs attacked each-other too.

Great! Maybe I can make some change that'll improve AI preferences.

While I kneel to almost no-one, I give you props for finding that Thank you very much.

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Yes, I found that sometimes (like 1 attack after 4-5 against Harks) goes against you (mostly those Atreides). Probably the AI focus the building with High prioriry but sometimes goes against the the nearest units (which they are those Devastators).

But hey, keep in mind that I remove the turrets, walls and units near the entrances so the AI is not as near as the original map. Also Tons of turrets, all the buildings and devastators around my base, just to show that the player indeed is very strong. With all this mix together viewing the AI fighting each other as regular attacks (direct attacks, not turning in midway) is simply great.

By the way, a Priority of 1,000 to every Ordos buildings is enough to make the AI attack the player; this was only a short test, so maybe in a long run (more attacks) the AI will alternate between the player and another AI.

[Fey]

Good to know. I guess I'll screw around with attack priority a bit.

[Feda]

Well, this is pretty cool! So, this result is because of the AttackBuildingPriorities? Or the AttackSidePriority works and influences this as well? 

 

@Fey, sure, I'd like to test the smuggler missions, and I'm glad you'll be going on with it  Yes, the Atr/Ord/Hark remakes are good, and the grenadier is surprisingly more powerful than I thought. Interesting changes.

[Fey]

Oh, hey, you can tag people. Cool.

@FedaYkin - The Grenadier was, believe it or not, even more powerful than that! It was originally a tech level 6 unit, Atreides only, multiplayer only... but I'm sure you already knew that. But, uhh, yeah, I nerfed it a good deal. They're still fast (for infantry), powerful (for infantry) infantry, though. I never like to mass them, though, since they blow themselves up along with everything else, but if you have a squad of like five of them in a group of vehicles, I've found they make excellent support.

Since infantry self-heal in my mod, using one, maybe two, in a small group of infantry is just fine, as long as you give them enough time to heal up before engaging the enemy with them again. That self-heal thing is a really subtle change, but it makes a huge difference in the long run, especially before tech level 3! Infantry can long outlive their expected usefulness with careful management.

About the smuggler missions: I'll get back to you on that for sure after I've polished a few things.

Edit: I've been toying around with the AI on the second smuggler mission and it would slaughter me if the map weren't set up for testing right now. Great for a later level, not so great for the second level. lol

The smuggler missions are going to be a little different because you're being hunted by Imperials, not going up against equal armies, so they're sending tanks and Sardaukar my way. On the first mission it worked out just fine since you have a nice force to work with and it's a short level, I actually managed to clear the whole map (before I added stationary defenses to the northeastern base, at least), but the second level you have to survive long enough to collect some Solaris. I'm gonna see what I can do about making sure it's... appropriate...

Edited December 10, 2016 by Fey
More info...

[Gruntlord6]

@FedaYkin Forum was never dead, it just goes through phases of inactivity with tons of lurkers. Maybe I will finish off mission 3 of Rise of the Mercenaries, it's half done and I have the basic concepts outlined but lack motivation.

Glad to see everyone is back into posting.

[Fey]

Hey Gruntlord! Nice to see you. I like your D2k client.

In the client, mission 3 is there, rather than "Coming soon!", but when I click it, it crashes because it can't find the map. You should finish it. I want to finish the campaign. lol

Edit: The first draft of Smugglers level 2 is done. Currently have some free time so I can focus on tuning it. Its present state is very, very overtuned.

You have to harvest Spice while fending off attacks from Sardaukar. There's a Fremen Sietch in the region, too, and making them angry will definitely hurt you in the long run. The enemy base is not possible to breach due to tech limitations and enemy fortifications, and they're supposed to send high-tech stuff at you, but not quite as much as they're currently sending. It currently features quite a lot of dialogue for a Dune 2000 mission, a trend I hope to continue in the future.

Edit 2: Mission complete on hard mode. No longer overtuned.

Still hard, but not harder than it's supposed to be. High-tech tanks and Sardaukar will be sent to your base until you're deader than dead. But, with careful unit management and possibly use of terrain, it's not too hard to survive! Not too hard at all.

Preview:

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http://i.imgur.com/eGnPnyq.jpg

Edit 3: A draft for the first Fremen level has been considered.

Edit 4: First Fremen level is complete. It continues the story from Smugglers level 2; between SM02 and SM03, there are no details on how Summers survives, so this is where the Fremen campaign begins.

The objective is to escort a mysterious outsider through Mushtamal Ridge to a Smuggler outpost. Imperials are hunting her down, and only you can ensure her safety.

Preview:

  Reveal hidden contents

http://i.imgur.com/SmIJ9qz.jpg

Edited December 11, 2016 by Fey
Don't want to double post.

[Fey]

Hey guys, I've done enough work on the Smuggler missions and the Fremen mission for them to feel pretty polished. So, I'll release them for open testing.

DISCLAIMER: There's a mod included with the missions pack. These missions were designed around that mod. Please install the mod using TibEd before testing.
TIBED LINK: http://www.tibed.net/download/?tibed
MAP PACK LINK: http://www.mediafire.com/file/7r77peq8kbunlun/Missions(4).zip

I strongly discourage you from spoiling the missions for yourselves if you plan on trying them! Raw feedback can be the best feedback. Nevertheless, more details are listed below:

SM01a: Petty Thievery

  Reveal hidden contents

Starting units: 8 Raiders, 4 Quads
Starting base: Wind Trap, Outpost, Repair Pad
Enemy AI: 3
Objectives: Destroy Imperial silos. Pillage 10,000 Solaris.
Unique aspects: You only control several units (for the purpose of simplicity and difficulty balance, being level 1). A friendly AI governs the base.
Fey's comments: The Smuggler missions thus far have you engaged with a vastly superior enemy headed by a stuck-up elitist general, Kyne Giraud. This will change on level 3, when the normal houses come into play. Trying to take out the entire Imperial base here is probably not a good idea; there are two silo clusters mentioned in the briefing, as well as their locations. It's up to you to find them.

SM02a: Scavenging the Wastes

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Starting units: 5 Light Infantry, 6 Raiders, 2 Quads, 2 Combat Tanks, MCV
Starting base: Wind Trap (x3), Outpost, Starport, Refinery, Silo (x2), Medium Gun Turret
Enemy AI: 3
Objectives: Defend your base for as long as possible. Harvest 10,000 Solaris.
Unique aspects: There is a Fremen Sietch in this region.
Fey's comments: This level is comparatively quite difficult to your standard level 2. You've got a lot to start off with, and it's easy enough to get your economy started, but you'll only have light vehicles and infantry to defend against tanks and Sardaukar. Given that your light vehicles can chew through missile tanks and siege tanks in no time, and you have a starport to help you out, it's easier to survive than it sounds. There's also a very defensible rock formation at the far end of the plains, where you can catch some Imperial units off-guard if you garrison it. A Fremen Sietch is in the area too, and should you approach it, they'll talk with you, albeit not very kindly. You can destroy them if you want, but mark their words: They'll have their revenge.

FM01a: Hunted

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Starting units: 10 Fremen, 3 Trikes, Fedaykin
Starting base: Sietch
Enemy AI: 4
Objectives: Escort the outsider to the Smuggler base. The outsider must survive. Issam Nehara must survive.
Unique aspects: This is an escort mission. You'll be following along with the outsider and protecting her from harm.
Fey's comments: This mission was plenty fun to design, and it has a lot of dialogue to carry the level forward. If you played through the Smuggler missions before trying this one, you'll have a good idea of who the outsider is and why she's on the run. If not, her identity is revealed about halfway through the mission. By the way, Issam is the Fedaykin - hopefully that's obvious. He and the outsider must be protected.

If you come across any bugs or have trouble figuring out what to do (there are some unique end-mission circumstances that may or may not be confusing, I won't know until someone gives these maps a try), refer to these demonstration videos where everything is working perfectly, and please let me know what bugs you encountered. These videos are unlisted, so you can only access them via the links below!

SM01a: Petty Thievery

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VImIvk9F86s

SM02a: Scavenging the Wastes

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=txgi7lNGbTY

FM01a: Hunted

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5zNBVJdNMYA

The briefing for each mission is in the description of its respective video. Err... but it doesn't have proper formatting. Damn it. Well if you have a look at it in the, uhh... mission launcher, you'll see what it's supposed to look like.

I look forward to any feedback. Thank you!

Edited December 12, 2016 by Fey

[Gruntlord6]

  On 12/10/2016 at 7:25 PM, Fey said:

Hey Gruntlord! Nice to see you. I like your D2k client.

In the client, mission 3 is there, rather than "Coming soon!", but when I click it, it crashes because it can't find the map. You should finish it. I want to finish the campaign. lol
 

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http://i.imgur.com/SmIJ9qz.jpg

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Yea, that was a bug with the last update, somehow the template for the finished menu got pushed over the placeholder.

[Fey]

  On 12/12/2016 at 6:09 PM, Gruntlord6 said:

Yea, that was a bug with the last update, somehow the template for the finished menu got pushed over the placeholder.

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Dang. Well, I hope you finish it soon.

Edit: The first draft of Smugglers level 3 is complete.

The war between the Great Houses of the Landsraad has begun, and you deem it wise to explore the possibility of an economic treaty with either the Atreides or the Harkonnen.

SPOILERS BELOW:

SM03a: Stepping Up Security
Briefing:

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SMUGGLERS 03: Stepping Up Security

     Several weeks later, at your base in Tuono Basin, you look over the radar-generated mini-map from the Smuggler outpost and worry about the impending battle. The war between the Great Houses of the Landsraad is in full swing. Atreides forces are about to assault the Harkonnen base nearby, and it could easily jeopardize your mining operation.

     The comm link activates on its own and when you look up at it, Ketua is looking back at you from the other end.

     "Summers, you're in danger as long as you stay in Tuono Basin. I want you to retreat to Bled al-Hazrad immediately, and oversee the Spice mining in Tuono Basin from there."

     "Has Durant answered our request?" you ask, remaining hunched over the command table, and Ketua nods at you.

     "His forces will be meeting ours at Bled al-Hazrad."

     You hum briefly and softly in response. "I have a question," you confess.

     "Ask quickly, I'm very busy."

     "Why haven't we approached any of the Great Houses yet? They're running amok all over Arrakis, and seem to be growing in power with each battle. And I'd bet any of them would be less stingy than Durant."

     Ketua exhales deeply through his nostrils as you propose that notion. "I bow to no emperor, nor duke nor baron nor noble," he replies. "The 'Great Houses' would demand our cooperation. Only mercenaries understand that loyalty is for suckers. You should know that, Summers."

     It was true. You would be hiring mercenaries for your protection, not being hired by one of the Great Houses in exchange for protection. Yet, the difference is trivial to you. After El-Sayal, you're not about to take any more chances with your safety, or the safety of your men. At least you agreed with Ketua on one thing: Loyalty is for suckers. With your hand on the reception, you tweak it ever so slightly, and the picture becomes distorted.

     "Su---rs? --mmers! Ge- -- --ed al-Ha----!" Ketua calls fruitlessly from the other end.

     "Sorry, I can't make that out!" you call back. "Too much interference. I'll get back to you!" you lie, and the comm link is severed.

     You sigh in relief as that call ends and look to the east, over Tuono Basin. One of the Houses would be willing to trade, and then prosperity would follow. You were certain of this. You only needed to get an emissary safely to either the Atreides or Harkonnen base.

     You note in the back of your mind to keep the troops you send off the battlefield when the two Houses fight each-other at the killing field midway. All it took was a stray grenade or poor machine gun aim to send a soldier into a panic, and should they respond, you would instantly present as hostile to either of the Houses...

PRIMARY OBJECTIVES:
1. Negotiate with the Atreides and Harkonnen.
2. Form an economic treaty with one or both of the Houses.

SECONDARY OBJECTIVES:
1. Prove your worth. Assist whichever House you align with in combat.

 

Map Details:

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Starting units: 5 Light Infantry, 2 Raiders, Harvester, Carryall
Starting base: ConYard, Wind Trap (x3), Outpost, Starport, Refinery, Medium Gun Turret
Allied AI: 1
Enemy AI: 2
Objectives: Begin trade with either the Atreides or Harkonnen.
Unique aspects: You have an ally.
Fey's comments: This mission presents you with a choice, but ultimately there's only one option. Sorry! You know I like non-linear gameplay but there's a limit on how many events I can put in, so I'm keeping it lore-friendly and using as much space as I can. Cyril Vasiliou is too high and mighty to be dealing with 'outlaws,' so he turns you away. Radnor Krillys, on the other hand, is quite eager to extort you. So, you ally with the Harkonnen, pissing off the Atreides to the point of attacking you, and then you have to take care of the Atreides to finish the mission. At least the presentation of a choice and the twist that one House simply will not cooperate gives the impression of... well, twists and turns and stuff. It makes the story more interesting! Since this mission takes place in Tuono Basin, there are cliffs surrounding the center of the map which is filled with wide open space. There's one potential expansion location, but it's very small. You can fit a few buildings there, though!

 

Edited December 13, 2016 by Fey
Another update!

[Fey]

Just updating this thread.

Been busy this week, but got more time to do work on some mapping and stuff. Got some ideas about having multiple versions of the levels, going to design more Smuggler missions for testing purposes. If it goes well, I can continue the trend in other campaigns. Was thinking I'd follow the original model: level 1x2, level 2x2, 3x2, 4x1, 5x1, 6x2, 7x1, 8x1, 9x2. Yet to confirm that's what I'm doing, will have to see how the first few tests go.

Did a little more work on all the existing levels. Fixed some bugs and stuff. Made level 3 harder. Did some designing for level 4.

It may not look like much, but here's a map preview image if you don't mind spoilers. It's a ROUGH DRAFT, not complete yet, so I'm gonna be doing more work on it, obviously. This is just what I have so far. It's a little hard to see, but there are dunes up against the west cliffs and rock borders of each island, so it's not as empty as it might appear.

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http://i.imgur.com/d2WJ2OW.jpg

And if you want more details, here are some story plans for this map:

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 - Summers has received a transmission from an Ordos commander who seeks to do business. Since you're currently under the protection of the Harkonnen, this could jeopardize your relationship.
 - Currently, the plan is to give the player the option to remain allied with the Harkonnen, or allow the Ordos to destroy the Harkonnen base.
 - Your mercenary allies will confer to the player's judgment.

If you want to give level 3 (or the new versions of levels 1 and 2) a try, here's a download link. Please remember to apply the included mod via TibEd - these maps were designed with the mod.
http://www.mediafire.com/file/8nbny36h5rl4y4k/Missions(6).zip

If you run into any problems, I may have accidentally screwed with the map and forgotten to replace it with a backup file, or I may have the wrong copy of the mod that could still contain crashes. Please let me know and I'll fix the link as soon as possible.

Also be aware that I'm still seeking feedback about map design, story direction, and game balance. And other stuff. If you have any comments, any feedback at all would be extremely helpful and much appreciated for fine-tuning and motivation to continue. FedaYkin has been extremely helpful so far with testing and providing feedback, and has helped to improve the quality of the publicly released maps significantly. Thank you.

P.S. - the AI's been fine tuned on level 2, @FedaYkin, and you'll find that level 3 has more appropriate difficulty. If you care to give 'em a look again, I'd really appreciate your opinion on:

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1. The AI of level 2. You can feel free to play at "normal" again if you'd like, but no one that I know of but myself has tested this map on hard mode yet. Not only should the AI produce stuff more often, but there are enemy reinforcements that arrive whenever the player gets a certain amount of cash, hopefully forcing them to produce units and spend money and lengthen the mission, thereby making it more difficult. If this design works to that purpose as you play through, yourself, that's great.
2. The general changes on level 3. You have less stuff to start with, and the starport is damaged irreparably, but still present on the map. The Atreides have more forces with which to defend, too. Hopefully the changes make the map more engaging, fun, and balanced.

 

Edited December 20, 2016 by Fey

[Feda]

Yea sure, i'll have a look but probably it will be in the weekend.

 

I suggest you include the modded files yourself instead of asking people to use tibed to mod their games. They are located in Data/bin (those armour.bin, generally those .bin files, I don't know their names since i don't have a Dune copy installed from where I am posting).

[Fey]

Oh, that's a good idea. Thank you.

Now to just figure out what files are modded...

[Cm_blast]

  On 12/20/2016 at 7:35 PM, Fey said:

Oh, that's a good idea. Thank you.

Now to just figure out what files are modded...

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In Tibed, to the left appears the icon of folders: "armour.ini" "buildexp.ini" "speed.ini" and "templates.ini". If you change any value from any of those folders then the file is modified.

If you didn't change the "%damage" against X type of armor, probably all went around "templates.ini": "ROF" "tech" "available for Ordos/Harkonnen", "Raw damage of X weapon" etc... are all there.

Edited December 20, 2016 by Cm_blast

[Fey]

  On 12/20/2016 at 10:20 PM, Cm_blast said:

In Tibed, to the left appears the icon of folders: "armour.ini" "buildexp.ini" "speed.ini" and "templates.ini". If you change any value from any of those folders then the file is modified.

If you didn't change the "%damage" against X type of armor, probably all went around "templates.ini": "ROF" "tech" "available for Ordos/Harkonnen" etc... are all there.

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Thanks!

I did actually modify one type of damage just a little bit, if I remember correctly. Any idea where those go?

[Cm_blast]

  On 12/20/2016 at 10:21 PM, Fey said:

Thanks!

I did actually modify one type of damage just a little bit, if I remember correctly. Any idea where those go?

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Not sure what you mean. Something like "weapon - grenade - Damage = 150" now have "damage = 200"? (or the speed of the projectile)
If this is the case "templates.bin" is the one affected.

If you mean something like this:
If the enemy don't have any armour, then recieves 125% of damage
if the enemy have "Heavy" armour, then recieves 20% of damage.
Then is "amour.bin" the file affected (warheads).