Dune 2K Modding Dreams

[DoMiNaNt_HuNtEr]

GOD DAMN I like this game's aesthetic. The realistic scale of infantry, tanks & buildings, the way buildings blow up with all the debris, the terrain & atmosphere, it's all brilliant. My mod for Dune 2000 was coming along nicely years ago, but I ran into some seemingly dead ends. So I want to make a thread for the milestones which I'm trying to reach. I'm going to get back into modding D2K this year and was wondering if any other modders out there have any tips.

- Ornithopters. They're next to impossible to make build-able. The best thing I managed to do was swap the Airstrike support power to non Atriedes High Tech centers. Gotta double check that all three factions can use it though.

- Deviators. I'm not sure if it's possible for them to mind control infantry. In my mod they currently do damage to them at least; normally deviators don't do squat versus infantry but now at least they can attack them and kill them. But that's not what I want! 

- Saboteurs. They still spawn from the palace, but instead of infiltrating a building and blowing it up, they now can attack ground units, blowing themselves up along with any unit within a sizeable radius, like a more powerful Devastator self destruct attack. Weird thing is when told to attack a building they walk up to the building but stop. Force firing onto the ground next to them does blow them up along with the building. It takes two saboteurs to take out a ConYard, so they're not OP. I probably need to extend the range of it's weapon just a smidge or two in order for attack commands to work properly on buildings. That way the AI can use them effectively.

I'm curious if you guys have any cool ideas for Dune 2K mod?

[Cm_blast]

1 hour ago, DoMiNaNt_HuNtEr said:

I'm curious if you guys have any cool ideas for Dune 2K mod?

I used TibEd to do stuff for my campaigns, never editing too much the original values, but at some point I started to create "new units".

My campaign called "The Emperor Return" make use of a few editions, like the sardaukar being the only unit the player (as imperial) can be trained from your barracks. Later, on the last stage, building the Imperial Palace give you access to both the Devastator and the Saboteur (this will spawn from a barracks).
A simple imagen here: https://forum.dune2k.com/uploads/monthly_2016_04/571b69522ab60_EmperorReturn0.PNG.d02394d9193b55fabaaf0027922b8ae1.PNG  Sardaukar available, but not infantry or trooper.

My single map "IX: The technology is ours" present 1 "new" combat tank for the Ixian faction. This "new" combat tank it's a mix between the other three, both in stats and visually, while the three main factions (present on the map) still make use of his original tanks. You can look the tank here:
https://forum.dune2k.com/uploads/monthly_2016_10/57f3b6a8c1207_Ix1.PNG.8af03563aa01729961bc1995be35ad21.PNG

On a plus note: the St.Raider now it's more expensive, slower to build but make use of the Fremen weapons.

Later, taking from that previous single map I created the campaign "IX: Master of Tecnology"; besides several changes (like showcasing the tank and St.Raider I said before), the most stronger changes was removing the light factory from the build tech and instead adding a second heavy factory, like this:
https://forum.dune2k.com/uploads/monthly_2017_04/58eaabbcbf2fe_IxTechnology3.PNG.6bf63776ac1dea758ee0e7493626a342.PNG

The second heavy factory let the player to produce the three special vehicles, but not only that, but doing it into a separated queue, allowing the production of a missile tank and a Devastator at the same time. And of course, it's illegal to crush people during this campaign, so Siege tanks has their purpose here.

And finally, my stronger edition ever done with Tibed was on my trio of single maps based on the final map from the Dune Emperor game.
The player has the traditional tecnology plus Fremen and Sardaukar (just as the original game), but here the St.Raider, besides being more expensive and much more slower movement, now has no weapons and instead self destruct, just like the original Ix vehicle.

For enemies the changes are much more bigger: The grenadier now it's a close combat unit with the ability to insta kill any infantry and the Raider transformed into a more fragile but very strong unit (with very slow bullet);  those two are being trained from a Sietch (since I made the sietch to be able to train units without requiring something more).
Also a "tleilaxu Turret" that it's only a normal turret with no cannon, different bullet; imagen here:
https://forum.dune2k.com/uploads/monthly_2018_04/Tleilaxu.png.a251010d813480bb24d57f08887af188.png

There is other 2 new spacing guild units, but those are "secret" for the good of surprising people; they are combination of other vehicles and other weapons.

On top of that, Fey gave instructions how to make a building to no present concrete under the building while still having 100% HP that not decay; with this, the Tleilaxu turrets I made are on the pure rock withouth concrete, thus now they are truly a "living creature" (same for the Emperor Worm).

And then, we have Fey, which it's creating plenty of stuff like new units and toons of balanced for his smuggler campaigns, but I will let him to tell you about all the crazyness he is doing, including a totally new tileset: Calling for @Fey to report with the full info.

Yes, we have been busy these years xD.

In case you are interested to check any of those works, just search on the index.
https://forum.dune2k.com/topic/27756-all-completed-mods-and-tools-index-dune-2000/

At the very bottom there is a link to the edited raw files so at any moment you can load on Tibed any of my editions and check for yourself what I did.

1 hour ago, DoMiNaNt_HuNtEr said:

- Deviators. I'm not sure if it's possible for them to mind control infantry. In my mod they currently do damage to them at least; normally deviators don't do squat versus infantry but now at least they can attack them and kill them. But that's not what I want! 

From the last time I tried; it's not possible. Tanks and infantry has like 2 propierties: "I am a vehicle" or "I am an infantry"; you can make a infantry to change to "vehicle", but then the game won't use the 12 animations (or whatever number) of that unit walking, instead, it will move on the ground withouth moving the feet (and crashing if you try to attack, I think); so no, you can't do that.

Edited January 28, 2019 by Cm_blast

[DoMiNaNt_HuNtEr]

Awesome response thanks buddy imma study this. HOLY SHIT that is a lot of stuff you guys have made! Yah looks like TibEd is the premier tool to modify Dune 2K. WHen it comes to other C&C games, TibEd is looked down upon. But with Dune 2K, it's almost necessary.

Edited January 28, 2019 by DoMiNaNt_HuNtEr

[Fey]

2 hours ago, DoMiNaNt_HuNtEr said:

GOD DAMN I like this game's aesthetic. The realistic scale of infantry, tanks & buildings, the way buildings blow up with all the debris, the terrain & atmosphere, it's all brilliant. My mod for Dune 2000 was coming along nicely years ago, but I ran into some seemingly dead ends. So I want to make a thread for the milestones which I'm trying to reach. I'm going to get back into modding D2K this year and was wondering if any other modders out there have any tips.

- Ornithopters. They're next to impossible to make build-able. The best thing I managed to do was swap the Airstrike support power to non Atriedes High Tech centers. Gotta double check that all three factions can use it though.

- Deviators. I'm not sure if it's possible for them to mind control infantry. In my mod they currently do damage to them at least; normally deviators don't do squat versus infantry but now at least they can attack them and kill them. But that's not what I want! 

- Saboteurs. They still spawn from the palace, but instead of infiltrating a building and blowing it up, they now can attack ground units, blowing themselves up along with any unit within a sizeable radius, like a more powerful Devastator self destruct attack. Weird thing is when told to attack a building they walk up to the building but stop. Force firing onto the ground next to them does blow them up along with the building. It takes two saboteurs to take out a ConYard, so they're not OP. I probably need to extend the range of it's weapon just a smidge or two in order for attack commands to work properly on buildings. That way the AI can use them effectively.

I'm curious if you guys have any cool ideas for Dune 2K mod?

Oh hey dude!

Yeah man, I gotchu. On some of that stuff, anyway. D2k's an old game, it can be limited in places, but we can still make some really cool shit. You seem to want to change the behavior of certain special units, so to affect that, there's a section in TibEd for it, but it will unfortunately demand sacrifices to implement certain changes. That's just how it works. Although I did see that Dune 5000 thread... I'm curious about that, too. Anyway, I'll answer with what I do know in the meantime:

About Ornithopters:

Spoiler

I don't know how to make them like conventional units, but I have placed them in-game before for some funny results - they stay totally idle in the air and shoot bombs rapidly at stuff nearby them. Maybe... we could use that to our advantage and re-design the Ornithopter into some kind of generic VTOL air unit that could rush up to things and shoot projectiles at a target like that. What do you think of that?

However, there are some problems, too. The "Flying" speed in TibEd is only a setting! I believe the behavior of Ornithopters and Carryalls where they ignore impassable terrain is actually tied to their unique behavior. And unless we figure out how to edit that...

About Deviators:

Spoiler

I think their ability to attack infantry is also tied to the unique behavior of infantry. Infantry in general have the ability to walk on infantry-only terrain, and that, I believe, is what shuts off the Deviator's attack.

Personally, I increased the Deviator's damage radius by a very small amount, made it toss infantry around, and said "pressurized" gas canisters were the reason. Lore-wise, Deviator gas doesn't work outside of the confined space of vehicle cockpits, although I'd love to have it affect infantry too.

About Saboteurs:

Spoiler

I finally have some good news - I think it could be done, but it would share behavior with the Devastator. So, whatever changes you made to the Saboteur that would enable it to detonate itself would also be made to the Devastator, and unless you give the Saboteur a weapon and maybe change its spriteset because IIRC Saboteurs don't have a firing animation, the AI won't know what to do with it. It's no longer a Saboteur to the AI, you know?

The force-firing ability does sound like a good idea. That could work as long as it does enough damage to infantry in a wide enough radius to always kill the Saboteur.

Those are some tough milestones to reach, and maybe you can't after all, but I still wish you the best of luck and hope you keep trying.

As Cm said, I've been working on my own mod with some crazy milestones passed as well! Perhaps that's motivating. As he said, I did in fact create a new tileset for the game allowing it to take place on a Heighliner. I also added a new structure to the game. I'll go over the specs of the mega-turret since you're also a modder; maybe it'll answer some other questions about turret projectiles for you.

First, if you want to check out the tileset, here's the thread. Please note, they are overtuned! So, no worries about playing on easy or something, I'll re-tune them for the final release thread. Which is the only thing not really made yet, the latest version of the tileset is 100% done and is ready to be mapped with.
https://forum.dune2k.com/topic/27842-wip-heighliner-tileset/

There's also a video of me playing through the second test map linked in the OP. It's very short, only like eight minutes, and you can get a good look at it without installing anything. The tileset is built for maximum compatability, so unlike another idea to get rid of the rock / sand craters (which would require .r16 editing and affect an entire campaign), a Heighliner map can be placed in the middle of normal desert maps without any editing at all.

The only downside is that there are no shortcuts in the editor for, like, auto-fill or specific setpieces, so that needs to be found in the tileset until I can figure out how to make those quick-fills work and stuff. Or maybe Klofkac could help with it...

Anyway, you're also welcome to use the mega-turret sprites I did, if you wish. It doesn't even have to be a mega-turret - maybe it's a power plant or something. Here are some images of that:
Storm Lasher w/ attack: https://prnt.sc/l44lv2
Storm Lasher damaged: https://prnt.sc/l44x62
Storm Lasher attack range: https://i.imgur.com/zlamRyn.png
Storm Lasher blast radius: https://i.imgur.com/17PyVv1.png
Storm Lasher in blue: https://prnt.sc/l4043n
Storm Lasher prototype: https://i.imgur.com/Lxlqpj3.png

The attack range is 14 tiles from the top-left Silo. It instantly strikes targets over long distance with a powerful area-effect blast.

If you want to see one in action, here's the unlisted prototype test which I integrated into S15:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PvXPULNk6hE

If you want a more intimate look, the now-complete 15th level (24th mission) in the smugglers campaign has a special introduction for it. Here's a link to the post for the latest version of that map in the WIP thread:
https://forum.dune2k.com/topic/27783-wip-smugglers-campaign-2/?do=findComment&comment=395913

Under the strategy section in the map details is an outline of how its introduction begins:

Spoiler

If you want to save your starting Troopers, select one and send it north and send the other two south immediately after you start. One will die, the other two will live.

Take note of the infantry rock on the terrain. When around Storm Lashers, it may be used to hint at where the end of the safe-zone is.

This level introduces a boss turret, first by itself, and then en masse in the enemy base. Don't be afraid, you'll learn how to deal with it at the very start of the map! To beat the first section, simply follow Summers' instructions. Have your Light Infantry take point so your Grenadiers stay healthy. Bomb each Wind Trap on the cliff wall, then hustle to the next one before your enemy can re-route their power. You may take a few hits from the enemy Grenadiers on the cliff, but you can safely ignore them. When you receive your reinforcements, it's safe to get up close. Go secure the tower!

Regarding the technical process behind its design:

Spoiler

The idea I came up with was a turret that would force more micro out of the player somehow. I wanted an area-effect attack so the player would have to isolate units from the rest. I happen to know that turrets will automatically re-target the closest unit if their current target leaves range or is destroyed, so this was helpful in designing the concept of the Storm Lasher.

I gave it an attack strong enough to outright kill infantry, but not strong enough to kill vehicles in one shot. Its rate of fire is so slow, it takes ten whole seconds in in-game time to recharge between attacks. Because its attack range is so high, it's impossible or impractical to retreat out of its range. Therefore, a player attempting to reach one must move a Combat Tank or something ahead of his main force to act like a lightning rod.

Although it requires support to be effective, as seen in the unlisted prototype demonstration where it was overwhelmed easily by a group of Quads, it's extremely effective when combined with natural barriers like cliffs. Artificial barriers, like walls and conventional turrets, can quickly be destroyed by Storm Lasher fire if you send kamikaze units up near the enemy fortifications. In fact, the blue tiles in this screenshot of S15 are "send units here to cause maximum collateral damage!" suggestions: https://prnt.sc/la7hmu

While I wanted the attack to be precise even over long range, I was having trouble doing that. I suspect if I change the weapon behavior to be similar to the Rocket Turret, I can make it happen, since those rockets track targets. I have yet to experiment with that though. At the very least, it's certainly destructive enough to be a threat even if it's also somewhat inaccurate!

The area effect attack was working fine enough, but there was another problem. I wanted there to be a firing animation at the building itself, but unlike units that have their own muzzle flash, that wasn't exactly possible - or so it appeared - for this structure. So, I tried something else: I made the weapon speed 255, set it to non-instant, and gave it a trail. This caused the initial trail to spawn over the Storm Lasher, and then no trail on the way to the target since it was pretty much an instant strike anyway. It also revealed to me that the projectile would spawn at the top left corner of the structure, so I had to build my sprite around that.

As for building the sprite, I did that in gimp. I really suck at drawing original stuff, but what I did was I took the Atreides Silo, the Ordos Wind Trap, and a generic turret base, and with pieces of those sprites, I created the tower. The Atreides Silos' transparent part showing stuff inside was put facing the other way, I did draw the rings of color atop the Silos and the black tubes feeding plasma to the tower of the Storm Lasher, and then making the damaged sprite was putting black pixels on things to make it look all cracked up. I also figured out how to make the fire spawn in-game on one of the plasma leaks when the structure is damaged, but I want to make it spawn on the other one too rather than on the tower itself. I plan to overwrite one of the building animations with a passive glow that I can put in the top of the Storm Lasher.

The new sprite helped to make it a big, dramatic weapon, but giving it its own introduction sequence contributed to that.

To get it to work in-game as a unique building, I needed to overwrite the behavior of an existing building. So, I overwrote the smugglers' Starport (which wasn't in use in my mod anyway) and gave it the behavior of the Atreides HTF. Now an Atreides HTF can't be placed for other factions, unfortunately, because it's placed via the normal High Tech Factory in the editor, but it allows for the use of the Storm Lasher.

Once it was implemented, I needed a good demonstration map. So, I implemented the Storm Lasher's original demonstration into S15, expanded the map, and added three more in the main enemy base. Their distance from one-another is calculated so the player can approach each one individually and not have to fight two at once. And, the terrain is built around their attack range to ensure the map plays well.

Although there is only one AI there, the cliff walls and enemy base layout make it difficult to directly assault the Storm Lashers. The layout is also conducive to inspiring the player to cause collateral damage. Wind Traps are sectioned off and impossible to access without coming under fire from the Storm Lashers, Refineries and Silos are also spread and well-covered, and enemy production structures will be active first at the base entrance and later behind the ConYard, well within the protection of two Storm Lashers.

For the sidebar icon, I used the Guild icon from Emperor and added the border and 4 concrete tiles in the top left. The player may build them only near the end of S18, the final level in the smugglers campaign.

With all that done, that pretty much sums up the development process.

If you're interested in more spritework, I've also been editing Combat Tank bodies and trying to come up with a better alternative than the Shock Raider as a miniature version of the Storm Lasher. Here's some other random spritework:
Combat Tanks / Spark Darters, black & red: https://prnt.sc/l6jm6y
Combat Tanks, 8 directions: https://prnt.sc/l6197k
Duelist Tank sidebar icon: https://prnt.sc/l3d672

The Duelist Tank is another unit added for the Ordos and smugglers exclusively in my mod. They appear on S14V1 and V2 if I remember correctly, but their purpose as a damage soaker is already fulfilled by the strong merc Combat Tanks. Which Summers begins using in the second half of the campaign. So, I only gave them to the Ordos on those maps. You can at least see them on the map! They have tough armor and can win a 1v1 against almost any other unit, but they are slow and have a short range.

The other new units, the RPG Quad and Shock Raider, appear on S14V1 and S15 respectively.

I'll give you a list of some other stuff I changed for my mod since Cm summoned me for that. Pretty minor stuff after the above, but it all comes together to make the whole thing:

Spoiler

The Imperials now use medium Combat Tanks. Mercs use heavy, Fremen use light.

Mercs are now orange, not yellow.

Trikes / Raiders and Troopers are unlocked at tech 1.

Quads and Grenadiers are unlocked at tech 2.

All infantry self-heal, but all units are better against them in general. That "Scatter" button is now useful to stop enemy Troopers and Quads from dealing damage to entire squads of infantry with their area-effect rockets, and it's a much better idea to put two Troopers on that infantry rock tile instead of filling it up with five, most of the time.

Unit range is rounded out.

Upgrades are more expensive, as are many structures. Completely upgrading your base now costs 6000 Solaris.

The Siege Tank is available with an upgraded Heavy Factory and a High Tech Factory. Missile and Duelist Tanks are available with a non-upgraded Heavy Factory and a Research Centre. Both routes cost the same to unlock different sorts of long-range artillery, so the player can choose which to go for first.

Quads hit significantly harder, but remain as fragile as they've always been.

Siege Tanks are now on par with other units and are as expensive as Missile Tanks, at 900 Solaris.

Devastators and Sonic Tanks hit harder. Deviators can toss infantry and are more reliable against vehicles.

All special vehicles share the price of 1100 Solaris.

Concrete Walls block Trooper and Quad fire in addition to Combat and Duelist Tank fire.

Turrets have a lower rate of fire, light armor, and are more expensive, but have much longer range. Gun Turrets can be powered down.

The Barracks can be placed before the Wind Trap, and ConYards now generate 100 power on their own - enough to afford two Gun Turrets at a new location.

Minor touch-up work was done on certain building sprites that mistakenly lost color in certain places in the original game.

Building armor is normalized. No longer do Troopers destroy Refineries easily while taking a long time to kill Wind Traps, or vice versa for Grenadiers - it's somewhere in the middle.

Harvesters and Carryalls are more fragile.

Refineries cost 2000 Solaris, but Harvesters cost 1000 Solaris.

The Death Hand will not miss (yet to be implemented in every map, but is active in S18) and deals more damage.

The Imperials get their own Barracks.

Sardaukar Elites, Fremen Warriors, and Stealth Raiders can all be built at tech 6. Barracks and High Tech Factory, no upgrades needed.

And some more stuff aside from all that. Ya know, little tweaks here and there, slowly balancing it better...

It's really nice to see other modders around. I hope to see some of your work sometime soon, and I hope my rambling has given you some ideas for your own mod!

[DoMiNaNt_HuNtEr]

WOW! I seen some tilesets like green grass and such. Finally, like in Emperor BfD, we can fight on planets other than Arrakis! It's like you've pushed the game engine to it's limit. Very interesting stuff, will dive into it all soon. Thanks for the response.

So far, the only solid grasp I have is with the Saboteur. I used the Missile Tank unused secondary weapon, I re coded it into a suicide bomb weapon similar to the devastator suicide attack. It's NOT a deploy attack method, it is just a primary weapon with a very close range. The original Dev will not be affected by this change at all. There are a couple of unused weapons in Dune2k which can be utilized to create new and unique weapons. The saboteur is my most successful edit. I'm slowly but surely getting my Dune 2K re installed and luckily I saved my old TibEd mod on media fire so I'm gonna get back into this no problem.

Edited January 28, 2019 by DoMiNaNt_HuNtEr

[Fey]

On 1/28/2019 at 3:39 AM, DoMiNaNt_HuNtEr said:

WOW! I seen some tilesets like green grass and such. Finally, like in Emperor BfD, we can fight on planets other than Arrakis! It's like you've pushed the game engine to it's limit. Very interesting stuff, will dive into it all soon. Thanks for the response.

Sweet! Take your time, my dude.

Well, we can fight on a Heighliner at least. And maybe Caladan too, but that's still rough around the edges. Here's some more background on the whole tileset development process, if you want more context:

Spoiler

I actually came up with the Base Platform concept for the Caladan tileset originally. Here:
https://forum.dune2k.com/topic/27783-wip-smugglers-campaign-2/?do=findComment&comment=395934

This was the original release with an old version of Base Platform.

We know how to remove the need for concrete under buildings and remove or change the color of the rock / sand craters now, but that would have meant the game NEEDED editing in order to get the tilesets to work. This is impractical and limited, and to make matters worse, it seems any tile that can have Spice on it can also be damaged with sand craters.

To solve that, I figured a nodes system might be the ideal work-around for the sand craters, and we needed some sort of orange platform to place structures on. In terms of story and stuff, I figured Base Platform is needed to simulate the various elements of Arrakis to make structures work properly - it contains resources that ConYards can pull from the platform, will cause buildings to degrade, but Wind Traps will generate power and standard buildings can be placed. Thus, Base Platform was created.

The Mass Deposit idea didn't work very well on the map linked in that post, but I figured it might have been just because the Mass Deposits were so far from the Base Platform and they only returned 50 per blob. I did have the idea to go ahead and color the platforming a bunch of different ways to simulate a Heighliner, too! Now that I had a working orange platform, I went and worked that out and it's now completely done. Yay!

I'd love to go back to the Caladan tileset and fix some more stuff up. Because the Base Platform doesn't go all the way to the edge of the tile, it can't be placed over water in the version of the tileset linked in that post. In the Heighliner tileset, I had everything up against the edges in the Heighliner tilset so things could be arranged in many different ways. Here's an example of the Caladan tileset with Base Platform pushed up against the edge:
https://prnt.sc/m1pcj2

As you can see, it can now be placed over water. Cm suggested a different texture for some of the Base Platform edges, like this:
https://prnt.sc/m20uz7

And I was thinking of doing another resources system like the Supply Depots on Heighliners, except there'd be some blue minerals on brighter beach-colored terrain. Get all Starcraft up in here. I dunno how I'm gonna draw the blue minerals, and there's like no room left in the tileset to place anything so I'd need to overwrite the dirt paths or something, but I'll see what I can come up with.

No work at all done on a Geidi Prime or Draconis IV tileset yet, but I was thinking of recoloring the Caladan tileset, adding some industrial areas, and seeing about expanding on the icy tiles already in one of the Arrakis tilesets. Hypoethetically, for the finite resources system, Geidi Prime would use oil. Dunno about Draconis IV, but in the meantime, the Supply Depot / Mass Deposit system works with any potential tileset. Like I said, I ain't an artist, but hey! I love this game and as long as I've got a little something to work with, like the existing crate sprites in D2k, I can manipulate that well enough through editing.

That said, if you've got any ideas, requests, or contributions for one of the homeworld tilesets, please do let me know.

On 1/28/2019 at 3:39 AM, DoMiNaNt_HuNtEr said:

So far, the only solid grasp I have is with the Saboteur. I used the Missile Tank unused secondary weapon, I re coded it into a suicide bomb weapon similar to the devastator suicide attack. It's NOT a deploy attack method, it is just a primary weapon with a very close range. The original Dev will not be affected by this change at all. There are a couple of unused weapons in Dune2k which can be utilized to create new and unique weapons. The saboteur is my most successful edit. I'm slowly but surely getting my Dune 2K re installed and luckily I saved my old TibEd mod on media fire so I'm gonna get back into this no problem.

Aye, that's a great idea and I'm glad it worked! I look forward to seeing more of this stuff. If you're having trouble affecting a certain thing, I'm sure Cm or I would be able to help.

I'm in the process of fixing up my OG smugglers campaign with the modern changes to the mod, and finishing the second half of the campaign (four more levels to do and the whole 30-map thing is done), so... once that's 100% done I can turn my full attention to actually working up some more tilesets. If possible. I'm not confident about doing anything artistic until it's actually done. And I can always chat in the meantime. Maps and stuff take a while to do, but messaging is quick and easy.

Edit: Hey man, I really liked that idea of making the Saboteurs able to detonate on units. So I added it to my mod, too! I also got a little more work done on the Combat Tank sprites. The entire set of sprites facing towards the right is complete. Here are a couple of demonstrations with details under the spoilers.
Saboteur detonation demonstration: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qf4aT3TYf_8

Spoiler

Because the special AI is untouched on Saboteurs, they'll still deploy from the Palace, be used properly by the AI, and they still have personal cloaking. In addition, Saboteurs can be placed for a side without any AI. This will cause them to stay on guard mode until enemy units come by, at which point they'll kamikaze at them.

The explosion does make a sound, it just wasn't playing at the beginning for some reason.

As you can see when the Trikes are all grouped up at 0:45, the Saboteur has absolutely no chance of detonating since they'll kill him too quickly. They do very well against isolated or distracted units, and now they can be regarded as a superweapon! The Atreides Ornithopters and Harkonnen Death Hand are generally more effective, so this finally gives the Ordos something it was missing in my mod. Thanks so much for the idea! I hope you don't mind me using it too. You're welcome to use any of the sprites or whatever I've come up with as well, of course.

After bothering the Fremen, some Imperial units attack some of my stuff from the bottom right. I send more Saboteurs against them to demonstrate how effective they are against distracted units. They don't outright destroy vehicles (except LAVS, perhaps), but their great damage in a wide area is helpful for the turrets.

About two minutes in, I send them against clustered-up targets that don't hit back. They're quite effective! They deal respectable damage to buildings from the outside too, but they're ideally sent inside.

One of the major drawbacks of keeping the original unique Saboteur behavior in place was that the player would get an attack icon when targeting walls, but the Saboteur would never attack walls. It would try to infiltrate a building, but it can't infiltrate walls. Of course you could force-attack near walls, but this is a hassle and may not even result in the complete destruction of the wall. So, near the end of this demonstration, you can see I've made walls selectable / repairable (they're tied to the same function), more fragile (to counterbalance the ability to repair them), and the selection boxes are misaligned. The selection boxes have since been fixed, they've been made appropriately fragile (the walls in the demonstration were TOO fragile), and Saboteurs can now destroy sections of wall. Unfortunately, the ability to select / repair a structure is tied to the same function that allows a Saboteur to infiltrate a structure, but I'm happy to report that AI testing with this system is positive. Walls do not count towards the "Base Destroyed" event (still trying to figure out how to make turrets not count either), the AI won't bother with walls, and of course you can tell the AI to never repair its walls if you don't want them to. Which I plan to tell them to do. Or, not to do. You know what I mean.

If you originally set your own Saboteur to have normal unit behavior in order to get the AI to use them properly, perhaps my own interpretation and workarounds will help you fine-tune your original idea!

Combat Tank stripes, expanded: https://prnt.sc/me3uzr

Spoiler

Ya know, if you're interested in that. Also pictured is the new Imperial ConYard, which is already implemented in my mod. I've been wanting to do a new Golden Lion Barracks sprite, but that's far beyond my ability. At the very least, I can combine the Atreides and Harkonnen Heavy Factories into a new sprite for the Imperial Heavy Factory. And maybe I can do a horned hawk for the Imperial Barracks, but that's still not a lion. Maybe if I get a screenshot of the Sardaukar Barracks from E:BFD with the right perspective and do a little bit of touch-up work, it could be implemented. There's no way I could draw it from scratch, that's for sure.

I'd also love to draw a new spriteset for that Shock Raider seen in the Saboteur demo, as it was originally meant to be a new hovering vehicle based on Storm Lasher tech. Again, not talented enough, but maybe if I... copy parts of the existing Raider sprites and move that around. If you happen to know any talented spritework artists that no longer keep in touch with the forums, tell him or her to come back! We need new stuff!

About the Combat Tanks, I can recolor the bodies a few different ways like the Heighliner tileset just to have a little more of a difference between the three types of Combat Tanks. I only have two more treads to darken, and then the stripes need to be painted on 11 more frames. Then, the main body is 100% done.

And then I need to go back and do it again for the .r8 file. XD

Edit: All frames done! Huzzah. Here are all four Great Houses' CTs:
Atreides: https://i.imgur.com/rFTtXc7.jpg
Ordos: https://i.imgur.com/3bCV9E1.jpg
Harkonnen: https://i.imgur.com/ldRXB4D.jpg
Imperials: https://prnt.sc/meei8z

That's all one body, no recolors done. Recolors would be absolute cake compared to actually getting those base sprites done, so... maybe a little re-tinting for each CT variant would help further differentiate between them.

See you soon, I hope.

Edited January 30, 2019 by Fey

[DoMiNaNt_HuNtEr]

Cool stuff man. Yah for sure you can do that in your mod you do whatever you want. Mine is similar but it has the devastator plasma FX. Yeah now the Saboteur is more useful.

As for sprite work I've not gotten that far nor do I know anyone. There are SHP making programs.

Edited January 31, 2019 by DoMiNaNt_HuNtEr

[Cm_blast]

I forgot something. From the moddb.com webpage somebody uploaded "Changed dune", modding the game: the list on the spoiler contain the changes he did; just in case you want new ideas or something.

Spoiler

1. Fremens has ordos light factory and they can make raider.
2. Atreides doesn't have trooper and quad.
3. Sonic Tanks can destroy itself, Deviators can capure buildings by entering it like engineer. Devestators are very powerful but they can't destroy itself and they doesn't have self-healing
4. Harkonnen doesn't have light inf. and trike.
5. Quad doesn't need upgrade, they have machine gun, they are a bir speedier and can crush enemy infantries.
6. Raider needs upgrade and they have rocets.
7. Harvaster has 80mm guns. (Same as Combat Tanks)
8. Raider can be purached at starpot and trike can't.
9. Siege Tanks can turn its barrel.
10. Grenadier, Thumper, Stealth Raider and MP Sardukar can be trained at missions.
11. Concretes and walls are cheaper.
12. Constraction Yards give more power.
13. Ordos can't train engineers.
14. Thumper infantry can only train by Atreides.
15. Carryalls are speedier and cheaper than normal.
16. Ornithopters and DHMB's are a bit more powerful.
17. Sonic Tanks are now worse against wooden armor.(Barracks, Hi-Tech Fac, Heavy Fac. IX Res. Center, Trike, Raiders, Missle Tank and Deviator)
18. Rafinery is needed for Harvaster like RA2.
19. Changed silos deathanim.
20. Emperor's Sardukars has framethowers and they can be purached from starport for Atreides and Ordos (Harkonnen's is MP Sardukar)
21. Barracks and Hi-Tech Fac.'s has different HP's like Combat Tanks.
22. Imperial CY and Heavy Fac. is stronger than others.
23. Ordos Rocet Turret is cheaper but its Build Time is Long.
24. Changed Gun Turrets Build Time and ROF.
25. Atreides and Harkonnen don't have Upgrade of Light Fac.
26. Ordos doesn't have Upgrade of Barracks.
27. Troopers and Raiders can attack air.

Those modifications are suppose to be as part of the main game, but on top of a slighly edited original maps he also included a few new maps.

I arrange those maps to work with the mission launcher without needing to overwrite the original game; in case you would like to have a try of that specific mod (or just seeing how the changes behave in game) you can test it on the three new maps the guy added or just any other map; from here: https://forum.dune2k.com/topic/27422-updating-and-rearranging-missionscampaigns-from-d2k/  It's at the botton as stand alone file.

It's always interesting seeing stuff like a quad using a machine gun or the Devastator having an insane splash damage and things like that.

Also there is the Luminar Fremen campaign that add Fremen, grenadiers and building sietchs; I don't remember right now if there were more changes done into the game.

Keep in mind that post it's just a recopilation of other people creation. I did some fixes and the update to work with mission launcher, but none of those maps and campaigns posted there are mine in any way.

Edited January 31, 2019 by Cm_blast

[Anti Christ]

You inspired me to make mod units for you, standby.

[Anti Christ]

On 1/27/2019 at 6:34 PM, DoMiNaNt_HuNtEr said:

DREAM DUNE

What's your Approach on this Tleilaxu, Guild or other sub House Units?
I'm making one called Tlielaxu Regenerating Tank.

It regenerates fast quickly.