Playing around with the D2k campaign

[Cm_blast]

The text of the crash was about "spice-player". I thought that there were some event to increase the money of the Harkonnen (you lost money, they get money), so I didn't paid to much attention. I think that maybe is because I spoted both Harkonnen and Atreides almost at the same time. Both sides were talking to me, so is possible the game enter in some kind of loop, making the money of the player going to 0 more more than once.

Nothing more to say. The rest was good.

Still take care about increasing money. time ago I did a test-map with an event to increase the money to 5000 every 5 seconds and wasted building tanks and quads. The money went to 5000 several times, but then crashed. I don't know if there is a way to be 100% sure than the game is not going to crash if the money increase.

Test your mission 5 map 10 times in a row, just to be sure that doesn't crash.

Edited December 31, 2016 by Cm_blast

[Fey]

Done. Level 5, no crash, ten times in a row. Haven't tested S3V1 more than twice, though, on both normal and easy difficulties. Easy can mess with reinforcements so I always test that!

Also, details about level 5! The first draft is totally done.

MAP DETAILS:

Spoiler

Starting units: 4 Raiders, 2 Quads
Starting base: Wind Trap (x3), Barracks, Light Factory, Refinery, Outpost, Silo (x2), Medium Gun Turret
Enemy AI: 2
Objectives: Prevent the destruction of an Ixian base. Evacuate with the research.
Unique aspects: None.
Fey's comments: Summers' neutrality thus far has been gradually decreasing in advantage. In this mission, you're neutral until you piss off the Harkonnen or head to find the Ix, and unfortunately for you, you've got to do that pretty early since the Harkonnen will roll over the Ixian base. SPOILER ALERT - There is yet another twist on this mission. Summers will not be able to contact Sumadi after reaching the Ix. Aurelianus will allow you access to her Starport, but you must defend the Ix, and that means destroying the Harkonnen. Aurelianus will tell you you must fight. Thus, much like S3V2, this mission is heavy on combat. Furthermore, all missions from here on out will be against targets that are either hostile from the beginning or will become hostile very quickly. Good luck.

BRIEFING:

Spoiler

SMUGGLERS 05: Meat Grinder

     You tap your fingers concernedly on the command table as you ponder your current position. To say your predicament is percarious is to say the least. After the events at Maqbara Roughs and earlier, the Harkonnen obviously don't trust you, and yet, here you are, not one klick south of a massive Harkonnen factory complex. At least Sumadi didn't complain this time about your insistence on taking this tiny post at Gara Kulon. You wonder if he suspects your ulterior motives.

     More worrying, somehow, was the dysfunctional Starport. Your base didn't even have a Construction Yard, and you had no means to call in an MCV. The diagnostic report indicated that all systems were functional! It boggled you. However, all your troubles would soon be over - if you could only contact the Ix in this region, you would be able to seal the deal. The Ordos would have their tech and you would finally have your money.

     The transmission screen bursts into light and Krillys looks back at you. "There is a plot brewing," he informs you. "The Ordos have sent a contact to reach a nearby Ixian base. They're developing prototype weapons for the Ordos. You will assist us in destroying it and you will be allowed to leave Gara Kulon."

     "How?" you ask, stopping yourself short. How did they know? You manage to maintain an innocuous expression and tone.

     "Scout the desert for Ordos Raiders and mine Spice for us," Krillys replies, eyeing you suspiciously. Then again, that was his default appearance - suspicious. "I'll crush the Ixian base in the meantime."

     "Very well," you lie, and the transmission is promptly closed. You brush a hand nervously back over your forehead and hair. This is bad. Should the Harkonnen destroy the Ixian base, any number of unfavorable things could happen. They could capture the technology intended for the Ordos, the Ixians could lose their progress, the deal would be off. And the Harkonnen had enough firepower to stomp you into the sand.

     As a mercenary commander, you have worked with Kailea Aurelianus before, usually in conjunction with Sumadi and his smugglers, and she knew your prowess in battle and trusted your skill. She was expecting you, and for some precious moments, the Harkonnen were expecting the Ordos. For those precious moments, you could bolster your forces a little. Enough to last until evacuation, at best. What you knew for sure was, if you didn't intervene soon, you would never get the opportunity to save the research again!

PRIMARY OBJECTIVES:
1. Prevent the destruction of the Ixian base.
2. Evacuate your forces with the Ixian research.

MAP PREVIEW:

Spoiler

http://i.imgur.com/ajm3JcY.jpg

@FedaYkin - up for a test, by any chance? After the alternate versions of levels 1, 2, and 3. lol

Edit: Mission 5 has been beaten on Hard mode and is considered complete. Work on S6V1 will soon proceed. If anyone would like to test it, let me know and I'll PM you a link!

Edited January 1, 2017 by Fey
Update!

[Feda]

Sure, I'll test it.

[Fey]

7 minutes ago, FedaYkin said:

Sure, I'll test it.

Link sent!

This mission is significantly harder than level 4. I know you rock at Dune, so I hope it's more fun than the last levels were

[Feda]

There's yet another random crash regarding spice. It happens after you reach the Ixian base and when you receive the funds, I guess. I played it 3 times but only got it once. Yes, the mission definitely is more difficult  main problem is the Harkonnen attack very soon, and their first attack is gg for the Ixians as they barely have any defense. First time I played though the Harkonnen did not attack the Ixians at all.

[Fey]

8 minutes ago, FedaYkin said:

There's yet another random crash regarding spice. It happens after you reach the Ixian base and when you receive the funds, I guess. I played it 3 times but only got it once. Yes, the mission definitely is more difficult  main problem is the Harkonnen attack very soon, and their first attack is gg for the Ixians as they barely have any defense. First time I played though the Harkonnen did not attack the Ixians at all.

Yeah, same thing happened to me, oddly enough. It crashed once, and then it didn't crash ever again after that... I wonder why that is! @Cm_blast - think this might be a hint about what causes the Spice crash? Maybe there's a fix for it, maybe some sort of D2k file is changed after the first crash. Think that might be possible?

Aye. During testing, I didn't build more than four Raiders or fifteen infantry before heading down to the Ixian base. It's possible to save your original base, especially if it's early in the map and the Harkonnen don't have too much in the way of forces, but it's not likely to stay up all that long. The Harkonnen do indeed overpower the Ixians very quickly, which emphasizes the importance of assisting them as early as possible, thereby moving the mission forward faster and putting the player in danger sooner. It's a gameplay balance tuning mechanic.

The Harkonnen have a slow build rate at first, but after twenty minutes of in-game time, their build speed is increased. During testing, this was reliably enough to be set up in some way or another: Build turrets, build some new production structures, order more units from the Starport, etc. I tried a few different strategies and generally ended up in an okay position.

I did encounter some weird AI issues during testing, particularly with the Harkonnen not attacking, but I fixed it. 9,000 tics into the mission, Harkonnen reinforcements will arrive - either they'll come for you, if you've made them hostile already, or they'll come for the Ix. The Harkonnen will send normal trained units to assist the reinforcement units because a unit that arrives in those reinforcements is set to be protected. Hopefully that would have happened if you let the mission go on longer than the crash.

Oh! Did you happen to get around to trying the, uhh... alternate versions of levels 1, 2, and/or 3 yet? ^^

[Feda]

I think i tried them all the previous days, don't think I missed any. They were fine, but those notes from cm_blast were well pointed: i kinda agree with them, mostly. In S3V2 i can imagine a hell if you dont ally with the Harkonnen, as they are so close to you and will eat your harvesters for lunch

 

Well are those 4 raiders and the infantry enough to help protect the Ixians? The Harkonnen attack is pretty solid, with tanks, missiles and stuff like that. I'll have to try it again.

[Fey]

5 minutes ago, FedaYkin said:

I think i tried them all the previous days, don't think I missed any. They were fine, but those notes from cm_blast were well pointed: i kinda agree with them, mostly. In S3V2 i can imagine a hell if you dont ally with the Harkonnen, as they are so close to you and will eat your harvesters for lunch

 

Well are those 4 raiders and the infantry enough to help protect the Ixians? The Harkonnen attack is pretty solid, with tanks, missiles and stuff like that. I'll have to try it again.

Alright, great. Thanks for your feedback, Feda!

Oh yeah lol, but I make sure to test all options just to make sure it all works! It is possible to defeat the Harkonnen and the Atreides on S3V2. Durant's forces really aid with your defense, and fifteen minutes of in-game time is quite enough to build up substantial forces. While eliminating the Harkonnen becomes easy if you strike quickly and fiercely (provided you didn't lose too many units to the Atreides by this point), the main issue you're faced with after defeating them is simply that you lack their help for fighting the Atreides. The mercenaries tend to play it quite defensively, if I remember correctly, so you're left to strike the Atreides down on your own. If you can't deal with the Harkonnen quickly, at least the Carryalls you start with allow you to move your Harvesters around a little; there are Spice fields all over the map, even one south of your base. Might take a little longer to harvest, but they'll be safer. Or you could play it aggressively and strike any assailants at the northern Spice field with a swarm of Raiders until you're ready to attack

Huh? Wait, you beat it, didn't you? :O

You mean the 4 trikes, 10 light infantry the, uhh... Ixians have to defend with? Oh, my, no. Not if you leave them alone. You have enough time, even on Hard difficulty, to upgrade your Barracks and Light Factory and pump out a bunch of infantry and light vehicles before you absolutely must go ahead and help them out. Like I mentioned before, this is intended to force the player into a situation where their neutrality will not help them for long. If you take just the starting vehicles - four Raiders, two Quads - down to the Ixian base as soon as the map starts, and abandon your original base, the reinforcements that arrive will add an additional 10 Light Infantry, 5 Troopers, 3 Grenadiers, and 4 Combat Tanks to your standing forces. Then you're left with the decision of where to set up your base. Inside the Ixian base is possible for sure, but, y'know, it might be kinda cramped.

If you want to know where I set my own base up, it was directly north of the Ixian base, nearby the Sietch. The Fremen are hardly a threat and can be cleared out with minimal effort, and the location is quite defensible. It has some rock formations on the edge which you can garrison with infantry, it blocks Harkonnen access to the Ixian base, and there is a Spice field conveniently nearby. There are some other rock islands to set up at, but I think that one to the north is the most convenient.

Also, with the amount of funds Aurelianus sends you, you can further bolster your initial forces via the Starport. A few tanks, some Harvesters, some Carryalls... makes it easier to defend or to kick-start your economy.

[Feda]

I was an asshole and i destroyed the Ixian refinery and windtraps to get more space since they are useless without any production capabilities ;D

[Fey]

1 minute ago, FedaYkin said:

I was an asshole and i destroyed the Ixian refinery and windtraps to get more space since they are useless without any production capabilities ;D

Hahaha XD That's great! If only I had infinite events to play around with. I'd put something in there about that if I could lol

[Cm_blast]

First: Happy new year.

Played mission m3v2. In general is good.

Just of curiosity. Have you tried reducing the damage from the debris using tibed? The debris kills lots of my troopers/grenadiers. And the missions in general have a good amount of buildings (always like 2 barracks, 2 heavys, 4 refs, etc...)

Edited January 1, 2017 by Cm_blast

[Fey]

2 hours ago, Cm_blast said:

First: Happy new year.

Played mission m3v2. In general is good.

Just of curiosity. Have you tried reducing the damage from the debris using tibed? The debris kills lots of my troopers/grenadiers. And the missions in general have a good amount of buildings (always like 2 barracks, 2 heavys, 4 refs, etc...)

Happy new year, m8!

Alright, great, glad S3V2 checks out.

I'm not sure if I touched the damage debris does. In the original Dune 2000, everything is pretty delicate and blows up easily, and infantry units can't even self-heal. Take a bunch of troopers up to a base and blow stuff up in the original and they'll eventually run out of health and die no matter what. With the current structure of the mod, all infantry are capable of patching up some of their wounds, so while they're still delicate units - they can be blown up by debris or high explosives, grenadiers have been added for all sides, they can be crushed, etc. - they're capable of lasting a very long time if you take measures to see to their safety. Garrisoning rocks is an obvious one that was in the original, but if you're blowing up rows of Wind Traps in the enemy base and your Troopers look in the red, just let them sit out for a few and they'll be back up to 50% in a short time. In the meantime, you can use the vehicle support you probably brought along to keep enemy units away and stuff.

This change was meant to provide incentive for smaller, paced attacks, and for better unit micro. It's also meant to balance the addition of Grenadiers to all factions. For the enemy player, it gives them a little breathing room if you need to pause to accommodate your infantry, which will make defending a little bit easier for them and attacking more interesting for you. Hopefully. Troopers are among the biggest damage dealing powerhouses in the game, so that's what I usually do - send them straight after crucial structures, like turrets or Wind Traps, and kill anything that tries to get close to them with a swarm of light vehicles. If I have tanks, they're probably going in first to soak up damage while the light vehicles and Troopers dish out damage to their respective targets. If I have any Grenadiers, I prefer to keep them away from other infantry. They're usually grouped up with either the Combat Tanks or the light vehicles.

After you finish S4V1, you want a link to S5V1?

By the way, I finished the first draft of S6V1. It's even harder than S5V1.

Edit: Mission S6V1 has been completed on Hard difficulty and is now considered complete. S6V2 production will begin soon. Here are some minor details:

Spoiler

The Ordos will be receiving shipments of Deviators, but the Atreides, Harkonnen, and even the Imperials have rallied to take the fight to you. Durant, Moriaen, and you must fend them off... but there's a twist! Isn't there always? Find out when this mission is released.

More to come.

Edited January 1, 2017 by Fey
Update!

[Cm_blast]

Played mission 4 v1.

Ok, I can see a big problem here. Everything is ok, no crashes or anything, but you had created a map with no pressure to the player at all.

There is no reason to me to do anything until I have 20.000 credits, 500 troopers, 200 quads, 100 tanks... And even then I can cheat placing troopers where I want and take buildings with no efford; so this map is only about amassing units, and nothing else.

I know it has to do with the briefing, the story, the neutrality of them, etc etc, but as a game is like playing alone. No time limit, no attacks, no way to loose... I mean, if Ordos and Harkonnen were fighting you and after you take the front turrets one become ally that would be ok, this way the player have the pressure of 2 enemies, so if the player don't try to at least destroy the first objetive, could be hard for that player to defend against two enemies at once.

Now, if you really want to maintain the battle between Ordos and Harkonnen (and not you, at least at the beggining). I could suggest one alternative.
1º Step: A time limit, I don't know, 10 or 15 minutes, whatever. After the time runs out they both turn on you (or, since the Harkonnen are the ones threatening you in this map, they could be the ones turning on you).
2º Step: Instead taking the from turrets, you can use the Casualties condition type. Let's say, you give the player 10 minutes to kill 1,2,3... Ordos, or kill 1,2,3... Harkonnen. If you kill X Ordos, Harkos join you.

The combination of the initial money that low and the time limit, the player don't have other choice that to attack the Ordos early, not giving enough time to spreading untis around the base to "cheat" the mission. Killing a couple of Ordos should be proof enough to the Harkonnen that you want to aid them.

So the map is going to be this way.
-If player Kills X Ordos, Harkonnen join you (probably the best solution).
-If player kills X Harkonnen, Ordos join you (The harkonnen are near your base and harversters, so may be a big threat to the player)
-If player don't do anyhing (killing after the time limit doesn't count): Harkonnen become angry and fight you, but the Ordos don't want to join either. (Ordos aren't not going to fight you, but they still neutral, so if you attack them by accident, they become angry too (the worst option, the one that punished the played for not doing nothing).
<-- in case this last option could be to hard to handle to the player, maybe you can do this other way:
- if player don't do anything. Harkos fight you, Ordos are ally, and that's it.
- If player kills X Harkonnen, Ordos see how you want to aid them, and reward you with "3 combat tanks, 2 quads and 2 raiders every X minutes/once". So "killing some Harkonnen" makes the mission a bit more easy that "not doing anything".

Ps: I said "killing X units" because is quick and the player don't need to build too much, but could be another event, or maintaining the front-turrets thing but giving more time or... something else.

Edited January 2, 2017 by Cm_blast

[Fey]

1 hour ago, Cm_blast said:

Played mission 4 v1.

Ok, I can see a big problem here. Everything is ok, no crashes or anything, but you had created a map with no pressure to the player at all.

There is no reason to me to do anything until I have 20.000 credits, 500 troopers, 200 quads, 100 tanks... And even then I can cheat placing troopers where I want and take buildings with no efford; so this map is only about amassing units, and nothing else.

I know it has to do with the briefing, the story, the neutrality of them, etc etc, but as a game is like playing alone. No time limit, no attacks, no way to loose... I mean, if Ordos and Harkonnen were fighting you and after you take the front turrets one become ally that would be ok, this way the player have the pressure of 2 enemies, so if the player don't try to at least destroy the first objetive, could be hard for that player to defend against two enemies at once.

Now, if you really want to maintain the battle between Ordos and Harkonnen (and not you, at least at the beggining). I could suggest one alternative.
1º Step: A time limit, I don't know, 10 or 15 minutes, whatever. After the time runs out they both turn on you (or, since the Harkonnen are the ones threatening you in this map, they could be the ones turning on you).
2º Step: Instead taking the from turrets, you can use the Casualties condition type. Let's say, you give the player 10 minutes to kill 1,2,3... Ordos, or kill 1,2,3... Harkonnen. If you kill X Ordos, Harkos join you.

The combination of the initial money that low and the time limit, the player don't have other choice that to attack the Ordos early, not giving enough time to spreading untis around the base to "cheat" the mission. Killing a couple of Ordos should be proof enough to the Harkonnen that you want to aid them.

So the map is going to be this way.
-If player Kills X Ordos, Harkonnen join you (probably the best solution).
-If player kills X Harkonnen, Ordos join you (The harkonnen are near your base and harversters, so may be a big threat to the player)
-If player don't do anyhing (killing after the time limit doesn't count): Harkonnen become angry and fight you, but the Ordos don't want to join either. (Ordos aren't not going to fight you, but they still neutral, so if you attack them by accident, they become angry too (the worst option, the one that punished the played for not doing nothing).
<-- in case this last option could be to hard to handle to the player, maybe you can do this other way:
- if player don't do anything. Harkos fight you, Ordos are ally, and that's it.
- If player kills X Harkonnen, Ordos see how you want to aid them, and reward you with "3 combat tanks, 2 quads and 2 raiders every X minutes/once". So "killing some Harkonnen" makes the mission a bit more easy that "not doing anything".

Ps: I said "killing X units" because is quick and the player don't need to build too much, but could be another event, or maintaining the front-turrets thing but giving more time or... something else.

Thanks for your reply, Cm!!

Yeah, I agree with your assessment. This map should be harder. I just didn't quite know how to approach it. S3V1 is kind of the same, but it's okay. It's the introduction for the Atreides and Harkonnen, and the alternative, S3V2, is the hardmode. And that hardmode has a hardmode!

The casualties idea is great, but I'm not sure what the variables do. There's one called "Flags?" and another called "Threshold." I presume the latter is the one that's really important. Right? Then again, how do I make sure the casualties threshold isn't reached by, say... the Harkonnen and Ordos just fighting each-other? And that other idea about them BOTH being enemies if you don't do anything is pretty interesting, too, but I think the Harkonnen are most likely to be enemies, so the Ordos will simply ally with the player when they become hostile.

So... can you tell me how to work the casualties condition? I'd love to give that a try for this map. All of your suggestions are extremely helpful.

Edit: By the way, S5V1 and S6V1 were already tested by Feda so they're a little more complete than they were at first draft. I've personally tested them myself, acting as though without preknowledge, and beat them successfully on Hard difficulty. Would you like private links to those maps?

When I say "as though without preknowledge," I mean that I act as though I don't know the twist ahead of time, usually resulting in the deaths of quite a few of my units, but I can still beat the map, and that's the sort of balance I'm looking for.

Edited January 2, 2017 by Fey

[Cm_blast]

Here you can check about the casualties event.
https://forum.dune2k.com/topic/27397-condition-type-casualties-research/#comment-392918

In the first post I did the research, in a later post Klofkac linked a webpage to know exactly the values and all the stuff. Is more explained in that post.

I just tell an alternative. If you can't use it because Hark/Ord are going to trigger it before you, then you still can use the "destroy the front turrets", or "destroy the only front turret", or "kill that engineer"... but check the post first. I said something there about the ally don't counting, maybe only human killing count to that event. I don't remember exactly.

And yes, mission 3 and 4 are similar, but in mission 3 you ask to send 1 unit here and there. I didn't know if they were going to join, fight, or what . But in mission 4 i know that as soon as I attack that house is going to go hostile on me. I don't need to play the game before that to know that attacking early is a bad choice.

I still think that giving a time limit should be enough. If the player don't do his choice in 5-10-15-20 minutes, you loose the game or someone gets angry because you are not aiding him.

 

Edited January 2, 2017 by Cm_blast

[Fey]

Gonna be busy for the next week but thanks again for the reply, Cm! And thanks again for the suggestions, those are great ideas. I'll be sure to check out that forum post when I get the chance.

Hopefully I can get S6V2 and S7V1 done soon, and then I can release S5V1, S6V1, S6V2, and S7V1. And re-release the old maps with new changes. I got a little bit done on S6V2 today, but not all that much.

I must return to my work, but I can send you a link to S5V1 and S6V1 before I go, Cm. They've already been tested by myself (on hard mode to confirm that the difficulty is okay, normal to judge the difference, and easy to make sure dialogue and stuff wasn't broken) and Feda, and adjustments have been made according to gathered feedback and desired changes. Hopefully they feel even more polished to you

Edit: I've got enough done with S6V2 to release a map preview and some minor details. See below:

MAP PREVIEWS:

Spoiler

http://i.imgur.com/cXe5Zdo.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/7aJWbD5.jpg

S6V1 DETAILS:

Spoiler

Defend an Ordos Starport until those illegal Ixian weapons they ordered arrive. Then, defeat the Atreides, Harkonnen, and Imperials alongside the Ordos and your mercenaries.

S6V2 DETAILS:

Spoiler

Crush an Imperial air base and break the blockade alongside your mercenaries, allowing the Ixian transports carrying the Deviator prototypes to reach the surface.

Once I get S7V1 done and stuff's been tested and updated, I'll release S5V1, S6V1, S6V2, and S7V1 publicly.

Edit 2: S6V2 beaten on Hard mode. Finished fine-tuning difficulty and fixing errors found. Considered complete. Ready for testing.

Edited January 4, 2017 by Fey

[Fey]

S7V1's done and after Cm and Feda did some bugtesting, I've fixed up some old maps and polished up the new ones. Think it's time for another public release!

First of all, here's a changelog. I included some details about the maps not publicly released specifically for Feda and Cm.

Spoiler

 - Tech tree changed slightly. Large Gun Turrets require both an upgraded Construction Yard and a Research Centre to build.
 - S3V2, mercenary annihilation message changed.
 - S4V1, mercenary annihilation message changed.
 - S4V1, combat conditions changed. Remain uninvolved to piss off the Harkonnen automatically, or focus on slaughtering Ordos troops to remain allied with the Harkonnen.
 - S5V1, the circumstances responsible for game crash have been adjusted, and the crash will no longer occur.
 - S5V1, Harkonnen reinforcements arrive in a less intrusive place.
 - S5V1, terrain modified to discourage base setup with the Ix.
 - S5V1, added alternate entrance to Ix base.
 - S5V1, added capturable Wind Trap.
 - S6V2, clarified objectives to avoid confusion.
 - S7V1, added another worm spawner.

It's worth noting that the changes to S4V1 make it much more interesting. If you were disappointed with the last release, I insist you give it another try! You won't be able to just build up non-stop anymore.

Next, here are some details about S7V1:
MAP PREVIEW:

Spoiler

http://i.imgur.com/kjV09DV.jpg

S7V1 DETAILS:

Spoiler

Confront the hidden enemy responsible for the circumstances in S5V1 and the twist in S6V1 or S6V2.

Alright, here's the important part.

INSTALLATION INSTRUCTIONS:
1. Extract the zip file.
2. Move ARMOUR.BIN, BUILEXP.BIN, SPEED.BIN, Templates.bin, and TILEDATA.BIN to "data\bin\" in your Dune 2000 directory.
3. Move all other files to "data\missions\" in your Dune 2000 directory.
4. Use the Gruntmods mission launcher to launch the maps!

All maps have been tested on hard mode, at maximum speed, without preknowledge of twists, without saves, with multiple strategies, multiple times, by your's truly and also by Cm and Feda, with the exception of S7V1, which only I tested so far. It's my hope that the new maps are fun and challenging for y'all. Please do leave a comment if you give 'em a try! Criticism or compliments, any sort of feedback helps me figure out how to make future maps better and how to improve upon existing maps.

DOWNLOAD LINK:
http://www.mediafire.com/file/588o3m09odw1699/Smugglers+Campaign+2.0.zip

Have fun!

Edit: Made a slight modification to S3V2. Whether you choose to ally with the Harkonnen or not, they will still take 15 minutes to arrive at Bled al-Hazrad. Also fixed a erroneous event in S4V1 causing the Ordos to remain neutral to the Harkonnen.

Edit 2: Changed the color of the enemy forces on S7V1 to something unique.

Edit 3: Fixed an issue with the AI on S7V1 that would cause them to fail to work. Also boosted difficulty. S7V1 has been tested again and remains just fine. Deviator gas will now do heavy damage to infantry, and the mod has been updated as well.

The download link has been adjusted.

Edited January 8, 2017 by Fey
Minor update.

[Cm_blast]

I just found recently that technically is possible to make the infantry units being affected by the deviator using Tibed. However, the cost is too high since "transforming" the unit into a vehicle will make it to loose all the animations; and I mean all (no movement, no shooting, no dieing).

Since the vehicles don't have any animation at all (they have the smoke, but only the barrels from the combat/siege tanks have some kind of animation), the game just treat these soldiers as vehicles and proceed to only use the standard position.

By the way Fey, Have you considered gving the siege tank more strengh against turrets? That is something that has always bothered me, having a vehicle which do the most damage to buildings, but then when he attack the turrets he doesn't do anything. And since the Smuggler can't build the missile tanks the siege ones could be at least an extra help for that purpose.

I am not saying that increasing the raw damage to make 3 siege tanks alone destroying a turret, but maybe a bit more of the %damage to turrets so they could be a substitute of the missile tank (much less efficient, so you still need tanks and quads, but they can help with the extra range that the others don't have).

Of course, I am not asking those changes, just wondering if you ever though of that. 

Edited January 16, 2017 by Cm_blast

[Fey]

9 hours ago, Cm_blast said:

I just found recently that technically is possible to make the infantry units being affected by the deviator using Tibed. However, the cost is too high since "transforming" the unit into a vehicle will make it to loose all the animations; and I mean all (no movement, no shooting, no dieing).

Since the vehicles don't have any animation at all (they have the smoke, but only the barrels from the combat/siege tanks have some kind of animation), the game just treat these soldiers as vehicles and proceed to only use the standard position.

By the way Fey, Have you considered gving the siege tank more strengh against turrets? That is something that has always bothered me, having a vehicle which do the most damage to buildings, but then when he attack the turrets he doesn't do anything. And since the Smuggler can't build the missile tanks the siege ones could be at least an extra help for that purpose.

I am not saying that increasing the raw damage to make 3 siege tanks alone destroying a turret, but maybe a bit more of the %damage to turrets so they could be a substitute of the missile tank (much less efficient, so you still need tanks and quads, but they can help with the extra range that the others don't have).

Of course, I am not asking those changes, just wondering if you ever though of that. 

Wow, that's very interesting! Unfortunate that that's the only way we know of thus far. I made the Deviator gas do heavy damage to Infantry, so at least there's that. The Deviator is also faster and has a longer firing range.

About Siege Tanks: I've considered it! Siege Tanks are pretty special weapons - their armor is tough against Light Infantry, Trikes / Raiders, etc, and they excel at killing those units and normal buildings. Turrets fire heavier rounds, Quads are an extreme threat to them, tanks and troopers can take 'em out in the blink of an eye. The thing about Siege Tanks is that they're like the vehicle version of Troopers... Troopers excel at destroying turrets and breaching base defenses, but they need to be escorted to the front gates before they can unleash their attacks. Siege Tanks need to be escorted to the inner base, but once there, they can absolutely devastate the base in very little time. They do damage to turrets like Troopers do damage to infantry.

So, after some deliberation, I've determined that it's a plausible idea, but I haven't gotten around to testing Siege Tanks with boosted damage against turrets yet. So no such change has been implemented It may be in the future.

As a side note, the mercenaries can build Missile Tanks, but lack Deviators, sticking to the concept of brute force for their unit composition. Which is interesting considering they're an Ordos side! Tech level 6 is required to build the Research Centre for it, though, so they don't get it with the other Houses, unless you capture one of theirs. The Deviator's new stats are quite similar to a Missile Tank's, actually, so the Deviator is kind of a variant of the Missile Tank, except effective against infantry and tanks (by poison, choking, whatever justification you can think of, and by turning vehicles to your side). The Missile Tank is fairly inaccurate, too, so I think it works out.

By the way, I've thought on the whole upgrade prices thing, and after talking with Feda, I think it's reasonable to lower some of the prices. So, that'll happen.

I've been kinda busy lately, but I've started thinking about Imperial missions. I'm not sure how I'm gonna design missions going against Summers (since smuggler militia are canonically pretty weak) in a challenging and fun way just yet, but I guess I'll see how it comes along. The Atreides, Harkonnen, and Ordos have armies, so that'll be easy enough to figure out. Really my biggest issue right now is creating differing maps; I need more vision in terms of image. Map aesthetics.

[Cm_blast]

I see.

Will be missions 8 and 9 for smugglers? Later, when all the changes and fixes and balanced are settled I will play from the beggining, but only 1 version. Here you can tell which version of the 2 (of every mission) you changed the most, so I can play that. 

 

[Fey]

2 minutes ago, Cm_blast said:

I see.

Will be missions 8 and 9 for smugglers? Later, when all the changes and fixes and balanced are settled I will play from the beggining, but only 1 version. Here you can tell which version of the 2 (of every mission) you changed the most, so I can play that.

You bet! I just haven't started working on 'em yet. Been really busy. It's ironic, huh? Was able to pump out a ton of maps around the holidays, and suddenly I'm busy. lol

I worked up a rough draft real quick for E1V1, at least. Here's a map preview:

Spoiler

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

And here are some details:

Spoiler

Starting units: 10 Sardaukar, 4 Trikes, 2 Quads
Starting base: None.
Enemy AI: 2
Objectives: Establish a base. Destroy all enemy forces.
Unique aspects: Reinforcements arrive as you take out enemy structures and build up your own base. Sumadi's smugglers maintain the index of 98 that they had in S7V1.
Fey's comments: SPOILER ALERT - This mission, in its present state, is much more difficult than the first smuggler levels. You start with a tech level of 2, for the complete basic infantry / light vehicles tech, but Sumadi will employ similar tactics to S7V1 against you - minus the tanks and engineers. Stealth Raiders and swarms of light vehicles, as well as tons of infantry, are common. His production slows after a little while, but his first attack will be built quickly and he'll blitz you with everything he's got before that happens.

I look forward to progressing with the smuggler campaign, but I got this for now.

[Cm_blast]

59 minutes ago, Fey said:

You bet! I just haven't started working on 'em yet. Been really busy. It's ironic, huh? Was able to pump out a ton of maps around the holidays, and suddenly I'm busy. lol

Often happens.

Are you going to use the same changes for that emperor campaign? I mean, the same costs for refineries/upgrades, tech tree and etc.

[Fey]

7 hours ago, Cm_blast said:

Often happens.

Are you going to use the same changes for that emperor campaign? I mean, the same costs for refineries/upgrades, tech tree and etc.

Yep. My goal's to make a series of campaigns with the same mod that's well-balanced for each side and stays consistent with gameplay, lore, etc. In the Imperial campaign, you'll be playing as Kyne Giraud, a main antagonist of the smugglers campaign.

There's nothing below this spoiler, I just don't know how to get rid of it.

Spoiler

:O You rebel! You looked anyway!

 

[Cm_blast]

2 hours ago, Fey said:

Yep. My goal's to make a series of campaigns with the same mod that's well-balanced for each side and stays consistent with gameplay, lore, etc. In the Imperial campaign, you'll be playing as Kyne Giraud, a main antagonist of the smugglers campaign.

There's nothing below this spoiler, I just don't know how to get rid of it.

  Hide contents

:O You rebel! You looked anyway!

 

In that case I suggest you to be sure that the Emperor/imperials are good with the actual tech tree. I said this because the game treated differently the Construction Yard placed in the editor and the one you can deploy from a MCV. Placing with the editor is a "Imperial Construction Yard" which can't build the High-tech factory, but deploying one will be a regular Harkonnen construction yard, allowing to build that and the Harkonnen Palace.

However, if in Tibed you go into the Harkonnen construction Yard and remove "Emperor" from there, the MVC will become another imperial construction Yard (still, no high-tech factory though). But from there maybe you can do something to the emperor withouth affecting the Harkonnen or something.

This depends if you still have "construction Yard" as a requirement for that building. And if you have you can do the other way. In the imperial construction Yard, remove "Emperor" and that's it. pre-placed and deploted MCV should be treated as a regular Harkonnen construction Yard, or at least the last time I test it.

 

Edited January 18, 2017 by Cm_blast

[Fey]

47 minutes ago, Cm_blast said:

In that case I suggest you to be sure that the Emperor/imperials are good with the actual tech tree. I said this because the game treated differently the Construction Yard placed in the editor and the one you can deploy from a MCV. Placing with the editor is a "Imperial Construction Yard" which can't build the High-tech factory, but deploying one will be a regular Harkonnen construction yard, allowing to build that and the Harkonnen Palace.

However, if in Tibed you go into the Harkonnen construction Yard and remove "Emperor" from there, the MVC will become another imperial construction Yard (still, no high-tech factory though). But from there maybe you can do something to the emperor withouth affecting the Harkonnen or something.

This depends if you still have "construction Yard" as a requirement for that building. And if you have you can do the other way. In the imperial construction Yard, remove "Emperor" and that's it. pre-placed and deploted MCV should be treated as a regular Harkonnen construction Yard, or at least the last time I test it.

That issue with the Imperial construction yard was changed a while ago! About the same time I added the Atreides construction yard to the Ix.

They're also able to build High Tech Factories, they do so in S2V2, so I guess I must have inadvertently fixed that issue as well.

I don't plan on making all of the factions have the maximum tech level. Smugglers have capped their tech level since level 7 - they're not going to be able to build an Ordos Palace. Mercenaries are going to be the same way, cap at level 6.

I'm doing some work on S8V1 atm. Just three more levels and this campaign is complete Feelsgoodman.