[Release] Heighliner Tileset

Fey · February 26, 2019

Howdy, y'all.

For those of y'all who've followed my Heighliner tileset WIP thread (https://forum.dune2k.com/topic/27842-wip-heighliner-tileset/), here's the end of it. This release makes it officially done. Take it, map with it, and have fun! Here's a comprehensive list of the features of this tileset:
- Built for compatibility. No game modding required, no files need to be overwritten and later replaced with the original versions, no nothin' like that.
- Many colorful combinations of platform edge, wall, and base can come together to form interesting aesthetic designs.
- Create maps taking place either in the confines of a superstructure or in a massive space-based Heighliner!
- Use the hybrid resources system of Supply Depots and Mass Deposits to innovate exciting gameplay!
- Tell an expanded story by taking your campaign to new heights, figuratively and literally!

Special thanks goes out to:
Cm_blast, for his awesome help all along the way. All the testing, feedback, and encouragement is sincerely and greatly appreciated, my friend!
Klofkac, for his awesome editor. I couldn't have configured the tileset or mapped with it without you, mate! Many thanks.
D2k Sardaukar, for the original sprite I edited to create the Launch Pad. It's a critical part of this tileset. Thank you!
Shaokhan, for his feedback on using this tileset for multiplayer maps. I give you my sincerest thanks!
Helkor Duner, for further encouragement. I appreciate that very much, so thank you!

Before you begin mapping with this tileset, you may wish to try out the mini-campaign to get a feel for how maps using it might play out. Here are details on the mini-campaign's four maps:
HTTMC01: Lift-Off! - Reclaim the spaceport on Arrakis from the Ordos and prepare to assault the Heighliner itself!

Spoiler

FullMap: https://i.imgur.com/eoxYuaZ.png
TactMap: https://i.imgur.com/kNGQLPP.png

Green = Place Refinery
Blue = Bonus units
Red = Attack here!
Yellow = Priority targets

In-game screenshots:
https://i.imgur.com/g5mkItC.png
https://i.imgur.com/cNG114D.png
https://i.imgur.com/PHtPeb4.png

Strategy:
This is your basic tutorial map for the artificial platform tileset. Yeah, it's a Heighliner tileset officially, but this map demonstrates how it looks with a "superstructure interior" style.

The first thing you gotta know about this sort of map is how resources are gathered: The indestructible half-Refinery looking buildings with what looks like tiny Repair Pads nearby are called Mass Deposits, or MDs, and they cannot be depleted. ALWAYS occupy these structures with your first Harvester or two! Harvest from the pads. The crates scattered around the golden platforms (Supply Depots, aka SDs) are finite and they're best gathered when your MD is too saturated and you need more income.

Take your time to get acquainted with this and explore the small area you've got to yourself. There's enough room on your Base Platform for a Barracks, a Light Factory, an Outpost, and a Refinery, along with all the necessary Reactors. Build up while you look around and amass a decent number of Light Infantry and Raiders.

When you're ready to attack, make sure you visit the Harkonnen Freighter on the center-right end of the map. You'll steal some tough tanks, but they won't do much if that Rocket Turret is still operational. Take your infantry down the infantry-only pathway in the center of the map and strike the Harkonnen Reactor. Once it's down, the Rocket Turret is too, and by extension so will the Ordos base soon be.

To win, simply destroy all the Ordos' structures and take down the Devastator in front of the Launch Pad. This should be a breeze with the above strategy. Have fun!

HTTMC02: Boarding Action - The Harkonnen are here to cut your invasion off as it lands. Break their base.

Spoiler

FullMap: https://i.imgur.com/7QSBSjE.png
TactMap: https://i.imgur.com/6FsJk6z.png

Green = Place Refinery
Blue = Bonus units
Red = Infantry-only path
Yellow = Priority targets
Pink = Deploy first MCV

In-game screenshots:
https://i.imgur.com/xinLlH4.png
https://i.imgur.com/xTlPfLu.png
https://i.imgur.com/6USFCxP.png

Strategy:
Welcome to the Heighliner! The Harkonnen are here to throw you a welcoming party.

First things first, gather all your units and head down over the bridge. The small Ordos base is no trouble if you go straight for the Reactor and Barracks. The Ordos will be out of the game and you'll get a couple of MCVs back where you started.

Deploy one on the nearby Base Platform as soon as possible. This is not a good spot for your first Refinery, but you can place a Reactor here before your second MCV can set up on the ruins of the Ordos base. This will let you begin constructing your Refinery sooner.

Like on level 1, your first Refinery should go near the Mass Deposit and your Harvesters should be instructed to use the MD pad. If you build a second / third Refinery, your second should be closer to the large Supply Depot neighboring the MD. Your last Refinery should be placed where your first MCV was deployed, where it can harvest a solid 5,000 credits from that SD before it's depleted.

You've got plenty of space, so deploy three Barracks and three Light Factories to max your production speed. Don't forget to get an Outpost up to receive more reinforcements too, and don't forget to claim the Atreides LRA (Long-Range Artillery) from the Freighter below your LZ as well. If you position those on the white platform neighboring the blue bridge, they'll tear up anything trying to head over and give you trouble.

When you're ready to attack, your infantry can serve as an excellent distraction by using the infantry-only path. Your vehicles will need to head the long way around under turret fire, but there's another Freighter there with heavy Combat Tanks in it. Pick those up and push hard on the Harkonnen base - it's not impenetrable, even after the Harkonnen get heavy reinforcements at their Starport.

Once you're inside the Harkonnen base, you should discover the final Freighter behind their ConYard. That'll net you two Devastators and four Missile Tanks, allowing you to wreak absolute havoc on whatever remains of their base. You should also take out their Outpost since, just like yours, it gets them infinite reinforcements at their Launch Pad. Good luck and have fun!

HTTMC03: LAV Liquidation - Roll over the enemy Trikes, Raiders and Quads with a battalion of Combat Tanks.

Spoiler

FullMap: https://i.imgur.com/E9QVels.jpg
TactMap: https://i.imgur.com/94KvEyD.jpg

Green = Place Refinery
Blue = Bonus units
Yellow = Priority targets

In-game screenshots:
https://i.imgur.com/htWiTdu.png
https://i.imgur.com/H8QTOYj.png
https://i.imgur.com/2XTVCgG.png

Strategy:
Whereas you had mostly LAVs (Light Armored Vehicles) against a decent amount of Harkonnen armor and fortifications on the last map, you're now the one with the tanks and the enemy will be sending mostly LAVs.

Take your starting units, discover the Harkonnen Freighter on your way to the Launch Pad, then kill the Grenadiers. A single MCV will be dropped for you. There's plenty of room for Reactors behind the black wall at the top of your LZ. Place your factories closer to the black bridge and maybe set up some turrets, too.

Despite enemy numbers, their unit composition is quite weak compared to yours. However, you may need to make use of your main SD sooner since you'll be putting units out of three types of factories, not two. Your first two Harvesters (one is delivered free when your first Refinery is built) should go on the MD pad, but when you place a second Refinery, let your third Harvester do its thing on the SD.

Taking midfield will help you maintain control over the small, tight map. Send new units there and take a portion of them away to attack. If you leave the defenders on guard mode, they should handle themselves fine! You don't have to worry about a worm coming to eat your tanks while you're not looking, after all.

You can attack the Harkonnen from two directions. Their main Refineries are fairly exposed if you attack over the bridge leading left. If you go down, you'll find a small Harkonnen expansion and access to their back entrance, where if you turn and keep going left, you'll eventually come across an Atreides Freighter with armor in it. The extra six Combat Tanks will work wonders on their factories.

The Ordos can be attacked only from one direction, but you'll face their factories at different times. Their Barracks and Starport are mostly exposed while their Light Factories are over another bridge. You'll also find two more Freighters in their wing of the map - one containing Ordos LRA, and another containing Atreides LRA.

If you're having trouble with getting units to go where you want them to, you might be sending too many at once. In tight spaces, units may be more inclined to seek alternative paths the more cluttered things are. Send a few Combat Tanks over that bridge first, then follow with some more. It's a little extra micro, but you'll find your units are a lot more cooperative.

Destroy all enemy structures to win the map. If all six enemy Refineries go down, they will give up altogether. Have fun!

HTTMC04: Fight With Flight - Trapped in the center of the Heighliner, you must defeat all the remaining enemy forces to achieve final victory.

Spoiler

FullMap: https://i.imgur.com/bI9nY5F.jpg
TactMap: https://i.imgur.com/7zLWsxT.jpg

Green = Place Refinery
Blue = Bonus armor
Pink = Bonus LRA
Yellow = Guild fortifications
Red = Mission-critical structure!

In-game screenshots:
https://i.imgur.com/ps8XBbc.png
https://i.imgur.com/rEwgPn5.png
https://i.imgur.com/DCD5IEs.png

Strategy:
This map is chaotic all over the place.

For starts, upgrade your HTF and begin building your first Refinery. The Atreides HTF is your mission-critical structure and your superweapon. It'll come in handy when you're set to hit an enemy base.

Your objective is to level every enemy structure. They have four bases, one in each corner, and you're in the middle. Thankfully, you've got some time to arrange for your own defenses before the Guild fortifications fall, so focus on building up your economy. Two Refineries in your main, capture a Guild Refinery either above or below your main, and explore around for accessible Freighters. There are ten on this map, each one containing two bonus units, and every unit counts.

Without your assistance, the Guild fortifications will fall quite easily to the enemy attackers. Go help whatever Gun Turrets neighbor the enemy base you want to hit first, box them in, and you'll be in a better position overall. When the enemies on your rear break through the undefended Guild Fortifications, they'll be attacking you from several angles.

Map control. That's what it's all about.

The enemy bases on the left side of the map use LAVs and infantry. They're smaller, but don't be fooled! They're fortified at choke points, making it difficult to penetrate through the perimeter defenses. Bomb their Barracks or Light Factory with Ornithopters before pushing in, and consider pushing in from both available angles to mess with their defense forces.

The right side of the map has larger bases which deploy heavy vehicles and infantry against you. They take longer to take down due to the amount of stuff in them, but you'll find they're easier to attack. Both the bottom right and top right bases can be approached safely from the left, where there's room to mass your units. It remains a good idea to sortie the Ornithopters before pushing on a base's perimeter, too.

Fully destroying a base on one end of the map will prompt an extra hostile response from the base on the opposite side of the map. Use this knowledge to provoke enemy defenders into attacking you... and leaving their remaining base defenseless.

Once you complete this map, you'll not only have completed the campaign, but you'll have a great understanding of the tileset's strengths and weaknesses! Having seen it in action on four maps, I hope you get some good ideas for how you'd like your own maps to go. If you plan to map with this thing. Good luck!

Whatever design mistakes I've made in this simple test campaign, such as unit pathing and resource distribution, learn from them to improve your own maps in style and gameplay. Maybe you'll make your bridges shorter and wider, add two pads to your Mass Deposits, or add more incidental Guild buildings for atmosphere like what I did on HTTMC04. This campaign is mostly here to give y'all ideas since, being unlike Arrakis maps, it needs different designs to shine.

Download link:
Heighliner Tileset.zip

Check out the README for more info on installation. And, if you're wondering how it looks in the editor, here are a couple of screenshots from v13:
https://i.imgur.com/oZ65dBa.png
https://i.imgur.com/CPC18hq.png

You can use the middle mouse button to pull up the hotkeys in the Block Preset Selection window. These can be used to quickly cycle through tiles. For anything else, hit the "Open tileset" button and have a look around! And remember to enable Infinite Spice in the .ini settings for Mass Deposits to work. Without that, the MD pads will turn into crates and then disappear entirely.

That should be all. Have fun.

Klofkac · March 3, 2019

Thank you for creating and providing the mini-campaign based on your new tileset! I played through it and it was really fun. It was completely new style of gameplay, different from what we had so far, so I really appreciate new gameplay elements, strategy and objectives.

Those maps very reminded me of the inside-building missions from Red Alert 1. Althrough I rather disliked thore missions specifically, I'm looking forward to see something similar made for Dune with use of your tileset. And I'm really looking forward to play more missions similar to those 4 from your campaign, so I hope either you or someone else will come up with some more content!

Edited March 3, 2019 by Klofkac

Runtowin · March 3, 2019

Great work! These missions have different feels to them. I like it. I will give feedback on them later.
Regarding the tileset itself,
- It is not clear which tile can be built on, especially boundary tile. IMO, using color to indicate whether we can build on them or not does not hold lorewise (Those aren't sand on Arrakis). I suggest extending that attribute to all non-boundary tiles, if possible.
- You can get away with "blocky" map.

- I think the black background is rather bland. I suggest adding some space star will light it up, so it feel more immersive
- I saw you having more tiles in a tileset than original tileset. Is it possible to unify all original tilesets into one big tileset? (all ruins, all sand buildings, ice, bridge, etc)

Edited March 3, 2019 by Runtowin

Fey · March 3, 2019

6 hours ago, Klofkac said:

Thank you for creating and providing the mini-campaign based on your new tileset! I played through it and it was really fun. It was completely new style of gameplay, different from what we had so far, so I really appreciate new gameplay elements, strategy and objectives.

Wow! Thanks so much for playing and providing feedback, Klofkac!

One of the biggest complaints I got about the tileset, or at least the maps, were that things seem to be cramped. Three of the maps in this campaign were particularly so, but I'm sure that's something that can be remedied with different designs. Like... shorter, wider 'bridges':
https://prnt.sc/msncfj

Or, wide-open areas with a few platform walls and a little detailing with borders:
https://prnt.sc/msndva

Still needs more exploration. This campaign was a first-time attempt to map with the tileset, so it's bound to have some shortcomings. Hopefully it didn't get in the way of your fun!

6 hours ago, Klofkac said:

Those maps very reminded me of the inside-building missions from Red Alert 1. Althrough I rather disliked thore missions specifically, I'm looking forward to see something similar made for Dune with use of your tileset. And I'm really looking forward to play more missions similar to those 4 from your campaign, so I hope either you or someone else will come up with some more content!

Cm and I were discussing converting that exact tileset from RA1 for D2k, but it's only an idea at the moment. The more tilesets we've got, the more places we can take the game and tell a story. We've already got a grassy tileset in that other one that was previously converted for D2k, but I'd need to do more tampering before it can officially be called a Caladan tileset. I think the biggest pain will be getting the rock craters and buildings to work in new environments. The ground needs to be this bright orange. Since Base Platform is artificial, it makes a great placeholder, but it'd be ideal to use as little artificiality as possible. In resources, there are options. Building bases, not so much.

1 hour ago, Runtowin said:

Great work! These missions have different feels to them. I like it. I will give feedback on them later.

Runtowin, it's been forever! Really nice to see you again, mate. I hope you're doing well. And I'm glad you like it! I put a good month of free time into the tileset. lol

1 hour ago, Runtowin said:

Regarding the tileset itself,
- It is not clear which tile can be built on, especially boundary tile. IMO, using color to indicate whether we can build on them or not does not hold lorewise (Those aren't sand on Arrakis). I suggest extending that attribute to all non-boundary tiles, if possible.

The border tiles? Aye, I made the Base Platform / Supply Depot tiles fade out to black / white respectively at their borders to make them more visible. Base Platform itself has its own entry in the "ADDITIONAL INTEL" section in the briefing that states:
Base Platform:
Construction Yards root themselves deep in the rock of Arrakis and pull raw materials from the ground to provide for base structures. Standard buildings cannot normally be relied upon in the confines of a Heighliner, but certain zones have been laden with Base Platform, which simulates the various elements of Arrakis and allows for base construction.

IIRC, the ConYards pulling materials from the rock was how they were explained in the original game. It doesn't need to be the case on a Heighliner, but there are some other unfortunate limitations that prevent me from allowing base construction on every sort of tile:
- Bright orange rock craters appear on ANY terrain that can be built upon. .r16 editing is required to turn the craters a different color, which conflicts with the compatability interests of the tileset.
- When a structure is sold or destroyed, the terrain underneath it becomes a random "rock" tile at specific locations in the tileset. This is why there are 10 some-duplicate Supply Depot tiles and many more duplicated Base Platform tiles - those are all spots that need to be Supply Depot or Base Platform or they could be automatically generated when Mass is harvested or structures are destroyed / sold. I.E. if you could build on black platform, it would turn orange when you sell your building.

(For more info on the design process, please see the WIP thread: https://forum.dune2k.com/topic/27842-wip-heighliner-tileset/)

So, only one color can be built on and that color has to be orange, else .r16 editing would need to be done. XD The blue / white / black tiles are all for decoration and style. I provide the (custom) lore behind Base Platform in an attempt to justify how, mechanically, it needs to work that way.

On a related note, the gold Supply Depot platforming gets sand craters because that function is tied to placing resources atop those tiles, but there's no explanation for why you can sink craters into those. They have qualities similar to Base Platform, I guess. They don't look quite as good as the rock craters on Base Platform, unfortunately, but making the platforms a super bright white looked off to me. So... I stuck with gold, it ain't perfect but it's better than bright white sand craters in black platforming.

1 hour ago, Runtowin said:

- You can get away with "blocky" map.

Not sure I understand what you mean here.

The tiles are pushed up to the edge for maximum compatibility. Platform walls, for instance, are joined with a certain color of underlying platforming, but there's not a second color of platforming up top because that would limit where that tile could be used. Here's an image with the grid in the editor:
https://prnt.sc/msnrp6

Basically, the brown platform walls NEED to be placed on Base Platform since the BP under them is part of the same tile. However, because they stop at the very end of the tile, ANY color tile can be placed atop that platform wall. SD platform, concrete, white, MD tiles, uhh... anything.

I can't call myself an artist, I just do minor spritework here and there. To achieve variety in the tileset, I played with the colors and ensured it'd be possible to use as many sorts of combinations as possible. This may result in some blockiness without more detailing and stuff, but I guess that would be something like lack of detailing in Arrakis maps - if there's a large, empty space full of sand or something. Like the original version of S07 XD

1 hour ago, Runtowin said:

- I think the black background is rather bland. I suggest adding some space star will light it up, so it feel more immersive

Unfortunately due to limitations, that's also not possible. XD There's ONE void tile, just one, and it needs to be all black because if there were anything in that tile, it would look like a Hall of Mirrors effect. As much as I'd love to put a skybox under the pure black tiles, that would need to be done within limitations, and that's not possible. 😅

For one star? Maybe it'd be possible to overwrite one of the platform walls, or four even for a four-tile star doodad, but this has already hit its final release and I can't really touch it again. However... Cm did request a version of the tileset where the MD pads were bigger stacks of crates, for a finite-resources kind of map, so maybe I could tamper with it then. If I do that, after all. XD

I can't touch these maps again either since they're part of the 'final release.' I mean... I AM touching the OG smugglers campaign again, but that's because of the second campaign! The first is going to join the second as one big campaign. Lots more detailing, lots more bugfixing, it'll be good. I've only got S08 through S09V2 left to fix up.

1 hour ago, Runtowin said:

- I saw you having more tiles in a tileset than original tileset. Is it possible to unify all original tilesets into one big tileset? (all ruins, all sand buildings, ice, bridge, etc)

I went right up to the limit of tiles one could have in a tileset. It's pretty generous, but there is a limit! Just part of the reason why the compatibility between the blocks is important.

About unifying the original tilesets... probably not. There is some space in each original tileset, but definitely not enough for all the specials in every tileset. Some sacrifices would need to be made.

Edited March 3, 2019 by Fey

Klofkac · March 3, 2019

31 minutes ago, Fey said:

One of the biggest complaints I got about the tileset, or at least the maps, were that things seem to be cramped.

Uh, well, to be honest, that is actually what I specifically *like* about the tileset and maps!

I can imagine that inside a big star ship like Heighliner, there are all narrow corridors and tunnels, connecting some not-so-much wide open spaces. So everything pretty naturally feels cramped and claustrophobic, like when you watch some film which takes place in a space ship, for example Star Trek or something like this. When I was playing the maps, I was getting the feeling I would expect. On the other hand, making wider corridors or bigger open spaces like what you showed in your screenshots, is not specifically bad and would be probably better for gameplay, but it's not something I strictly demand. I was just happy about how the maps were.

2 hours ago, Runtowin said:

It is not clear which tile can be built on

There's "Mark buildable tiles" feature in the map editor, you can use it to see which tiles you can build on.

Fey · March 3, 2019

1 hour ago, Klofkac said:

Uh, well, to be honest, that is actually what I specifically *like* about the tileset and maps!

I can imagine that inside a big star ship like Heighliner, there are all narrow corridors and tunnels, connecting some not-so-much wide open spaces. So everything pretty naturally feels cramped and claustrophobic, like when you watch some film which takes place in a space ship, for example Star Trek or something like this. When I was playing the maps, I was getting the feeling I would expect. On the other hand, making wider corridors or bigger open spaces like what you showed in your screenshots, is not specifically bad and would be probably better for gameplay, but it's not something I strictly demand. I was just happy about how the maps were.

Oh! Well, that's good. I feel the same way, it's a different environment and needs a different structure in line with its aesthetic. And due to the way it's constructed, the, uhh... the borders could be walls or edges, raising up to black platform like on HTTMC01 or dropping into an abyss like on 02-04.

On a related note, I'm trying to make a tower defense map on this tileset. It's, uhh... actually turning out okay so far, but needs some balancing. No crashes from pathing errors yet. I mean, there was one but units were spawning too quick, so I fixed it. Not very long, I think it'll be the third bonus mission in the smugglers campaign, only like 20 waves and some Carryall drops in the player's base, tech-ups to keep things moving and fun... but, I guess I'll see how it actually turns out before saying too much.

For multiplayer maps, there would need to be non-linearity and good, open spaces in addition to the choke points. Pathing can be weird and they need the maximum potential control over their units. Not to mention that Mass Deposits would need to be mostly contested - one in the main base, every other in other areas more vulnerable to attack. For campaign maps, especially low-tech maps, I don't consider the maps being cramped to be much of a problem. I think it's certainly worth pointing out for aspiring mappers though! It can be felt when you're trying to navigate across bridges versus, say, massing all your units in this open area before hitting the base on the right:
https://prnt.sc/mspv98

1 hour ago, Klofkac said:

There's "Mark buildable tiles" feature in the map editor, you can use it to see which tiles you can build on.

And, of course, the buildable tiles in-game are bright orange. By necessity, unfortunately. 😅

Edited March 3, 2019 by Fey

Runtowin · March 3, 2019

5 hours ago, Fey said:

Base Platform itself has its own entry in the "ADDITIONAL INTEL" section in the briefing that states:

I confess I didn't read the briefing past objective section.

Quote

So, only one color can be built on and that color has to be orange, else .r16 editing would need to be done. XD The blue / white / black tiles are all for decoration and style. I provide the (custom) lore behind Base Platform in an attempt to justify how, mechanically, it needs to work that way.

Quote

Unfortunately due to limitations, that's also not possible. XD There's ONE void tile, just one, and it needs to be all black because if there were anything in that tile, it would look like a Hall of Mirrors effect. As much as I'd love to put a skybox under the pure black tiles, that would need to be done within limitations, and that's not possible. 😅

That's unfortunate. I hate all those limitations.

Quote

I can't call myself an artist, I just do minor spritework here and there. To achieve variety in the tileset, I played with the colors and ensured it'd be possible to use as many sorts of combinations as possible. This may result in some blockiness without more detailing and stuff, but I guess that would be something like lack of detailing in Arrakis maps - if there's a large, empty space full of sand or something. Like the original version of S07 XD

I can tell you put a lot of effort in this tileset. No complain here.

Quote

Not sure I understand what you mean here.

I meant, on Arrakis, creating terrain full of rectangle and square hills look ugly and unnatural to me. Meanwhile, since this tileset is man-made structure, you can do that all you want.

Quote

There's "Mark buildable tiles" feature in the map editor, you can use it to see which tiles you can build on.

From player perspective, it looks like everywhere is buildable.
I'm talking about the edge of orange land, the one that connect other tiles with the orange.

Fey · March 4, 2019

1 minute ago, Runtowin said:

I confess I didn't read the briefing past objective section.

Ah okay No worries, I put those at the top for convenience. I tend to write long briefings. >.> But, uhh, yep, the briefing's there for context. And below the briefing is that section which usually contains useful info about units relevant to the level. In the case of all four maps in this campaign, the section only contains info on Base Platform, Mass Deposits, Supply Depots, and Launch Pads, which are the names I've given to the incidental structures and whatnot that are around.

The text doesn't NEED to change for Heighliner maps, but I wanted to make a point that adding new text doesn't require replacing any necessary files. So, Wind Traps are Reactors and Spice is Mass. It's one of those things that can change harmlessly, ya know?

5 minutes ago, Runtowin said:

That's unfortunate. I hate all those limitations.

Agreed. XD But hey, we've also got superstructure interior style like on the first of the four missions, that could be more interesting, and for straight-up Heighliner stuff there's a black void and platform edges to work with.

I was thinking of Heighliners as maybe having multiple levels to them, like in Emperor you could see other Frigates on platforms below the one the maps actually took place on. So, if that's the case, it's a big ship and you just can't see them, and you can't see stars either because theoretically there's more of the ship in that black void beneath the platform. Not an open window.

._. If only we could use a skybox or something. Like, in this screenshot:
https://prnt.sc/mssacg

There's some platform below the one the player's using, but there's also that black void. If we had a LOT more space, there'd be room for some stuff like that, but it would need to, like... go under the platform edges and stuff. It's weird. And, side note, the slight bluish tint to the Heighliner and the yellow caution lines were some of the inspiration for the design choices in my tileset - blue platforms, crates surrounded by lines. Of course, the platform edges are surrounded by yellow caution lines because you could just drop the heck off there, but I didn't think it looked right. If you DO want to use some sort of border in addition to the platform edge, the basic platform tiles themselves have their own borders which could be pushed up against the edge. Like, uhh... like this:
https://prnt.sc/mssbkf

12 minutes ago, Runtowin said:

I can tell you put a lot of effort in this tileset. No complain here.

I certainly tried! Thanks very much. I hope you get some good use out of it, or at least enjoy it in whatever maps you play with it.

16 minutes ago, Runtowin said:

I meant, on Arrakis, creating terrain full of rectangle and square hills look ugly and unnatural to me. Meanwhile, since this tileset is man-made structure, you can do that all you want.

Oh yeah, for sure.

18 minutes ago, Runtowin said:

From player perspective, it looks like everywhere is buildable.

I'm talking about the edge of orange land, the one that connect other tiles with the orange.

For the record, the Base Platform / Supply Depot borders actually slow units down. I justify it by saying that due to the unique qualities of Base Platform, simulating the elements of Arrakis, it creates a wonky surface to move on. The normal platform borders have no effect on movement speed.

...That might be unrelated. More to the point, that's part of the reason there's a fade-out on BP / SD borders compared to other platform types. The other reason is to make it more visible where the buildable platform ends. Hopefully, it's visible enough! And if not, one can make it more visible by ending base platform abruptly against other platform borders. Craters might overlap, but it's another tile to build on.

Fey · July 1, 2019

Henlo, frens.

Nothing changed in the tileset, but I do have an update on mapping with it. A multiplayer map has been devised and tested with other players - and it works! I have received largely positive feedback on the design. Here is a full map image:

It's built for a 2v2, 1v1, or 1v1v1v1. Each player begins with a fortified main base location, a natural expansion, there's a third closer to midfield, and midfield is wide and open for skirmishing. There are choke points, infantry-only pathways, the map is highly symmetrical, there's sufficient room to build, and employing the normal strategy (mass the hell out of Refineries) at the main base does actually work to an extent.

Because of the hybrid resources system, it's more about map control. Once again, Mass Deposits are infinite Spice as long as they're occupied and the crates are expendable. Players will really want at least two or three Mass Deposits and control of midfield and of bridges around their territory, and they can use the crates stocked at the Supply Depots to expand faster.

This system is much different from the original. However, it's also functional on its own! On 'Erg, by Kipp, there's Spice all over and things are even more wide open in general. Harvesters can roam around pretty much endlessly. With this resources system, they don't need to wander! Two or three docked at each Mass Deposit will bring in very steady income, and the Supply Depots provide sufficient income for long enough to fund expansion comfortably.

If you would like to check the map out for yourself, here's a zip containing the map:
<LINK REDACTED; GO HERE FOR FINAL WORKING PROTOTYPE>
https://forum.dune2k.com/topic/27863-release-heighliner-tileset/?do=findComment&comment=397356

That's all for now. Thank you for reading, and I hope this map's design helps if you plan to draw a multiplayer map, yourself.

Edited July 20, 2019 by Fey
new version up lol

Cm_blast · July 1, 2019

4 hours ago, Fey said:

Nothing changed in the tileset, but I do have an update on mapping with it. A multiplayer map has been devised and tested with other players - and it works! I have received largely positive feedback on the design. Here is a full map image:

Glad too see you finally created a multiplayer map using that tileset. I don't play multiplayer at all, but I like looking a new things coming into the forum.

The frigate part of the game are there for decoration or you still will make spawn things for that? An outside "side" that spawn units from those frigates to harass the player (but not just too much, just as an annoing enemy) could be interesting, but I guess that cannot be done unless you add a 5º player into the game (even if it is AI controled) or something like that.

Fey · July 1, 2019

30 minutes ago, Cm_blast said:

Glad too see you finally created a multiplayer map using that tileset. I don't play multiplayer at all, but I like looking a new things coming into the forum.

The frigate part of the game are there for decoration or you still will make spawn things for that? An outside "side" that spawn units from those frigates to harass the player (but not just too much, just as an annoing enemy) could be interesting, but I guess that cannot be done unless you add a 5º player into the game (even if it is AI controled) or something like that.

Apparently, only six human players can join a game. Therefore, it would be possible to add AI enemies and not have to worry about a human being able to control them.

However, those CHOAMs are only decor. It's a Heighliner, I wanted to make it feel like one, so there are trade routes and the platform has several paths leading off the map entirely to give the impression that this place is the center of a lot of docking, supply routes, whatever. The infantry-only is sufficiently spread out, although in the matches I played I wound up getting attacked via the blue bridge at the natural quite often. The white bridge is highly defensible, but can be circumvented.

I have a separate installation of Gruntmods, very bare-bones without any movies or anything just for C&CNet. You can install it fresh even if you already have it installed just for whatever modding you need to do.

Speaking of tilesets and modding, Kipp requested we create a new tileset using images like these...

OpenRA may have changed the game up, but they also created some awesome new tileset data that hasn't been ported into the original game yet! Sand cliff on rock, rock cliff on rock, and some new structure data too. I believe it would be a simple copy+paste, and I could take care of it easily; the graphics are already drawn. All we need do is arrange them.

I thought you might like to know. I'll see what I can do to get it worked up.

Cm_blast · July 2, 2019

1 hour ago, Fey said:

Apparently, only six human players can join a game. Therefore, it would be possible to add AI enemies and not have to worry about a human being able to control them.

Yeah, but you still need to add the player; if you make a "4 player map" could be hard to understand to and a fifth, and if there is only 2 human player then won't be possible, I guess.

1 hour ago, Fey said:

OpenRA may have changed the game up, but they also created some awesome new tileset data that hasn't been ported into the original game yet! Sand cliff on rock, rock cliff on rock, and some new structure data too. I believe it would be a simple copy+paste, and I could take care of it easily; the graphics are already drawn. All we need do is arrange them.

I didn't know that in OpenRA had those different graphics.

Rifts that go into rock instead sand could get more interesting layouts withouth breaking the base or things like that, but then you need to remove other part of the tileset. I think at some point I saw the rifth with a way to enter the infantry that, instead on sand, was with rock; I cannot remember where I saw that (or when).

Colos · July 5, 2019

On 7/1/2019 at 7:04 PM, Cm_blast said:

Rifts that go into rock instead sand could get more interesting layouts withouth breaking the base or things like that, but then you need to remove other part of the tileset. I think at some point I saw the rifth with a way to enter the infantry that, instead on sand, was with rock; I cannot remember where I saw that (or when).

I re-installed OpenRA and popped this "map" out. They only have stairs for rock-to-rock. Didn't even see anything for a top to bottom movement. Or even going left to right, etc. But, I too would love to see these back-ported. They also made a decent platform tile. The biggest issue though is that we're stuck with a bunch of similar tilesets that have a few unique features on them. OpenRA compiles all of the tilesets into one big tileset; so they never have to worry about picking the right one for a map. Which sucks for us, since we have to keep in mind the limits of the tileset. But I guess that's off-set by having a more stable engine?
I don't know. But so far trying to extract these tiles from OpenRA has been kind of a pain.

Fey · July 5, 2019

2 hours ago, Colos said:

I re-installed OpenRA and popped this "map" out. They only have stairs for rock-to-rock. Didn't even see anything for a top to bottom movement. Or even going left to right, etc. But, I too would love to see these back-ported. They also made a decent platform tile. The biggest issue though is that we're stuck with a bunch of similar tilesets that have a few unique features on them. OpenRA compiles all of the tilesets into one big tileset; so they never have to worry about picking the right one for a map. Which sucks for us, since we have to keep in mind the limits of the tileset. But I guess that's off-set by having a more stable engine?
I don't know. But so far trying to extract these tiles from OpenRA has been kind of a pain.

I'm seeing what I can do about the tileset. Whatever the case, it'll be VERY rocky due to D2k's limitations. Kipp requested we remove the dunes since multiplayer folks don't like 'em, so I guess I could fit more sandy cliffs in there. What I'd really like is ramps up to the platforms.

Do they have those already? I wasn't made aware of those sorts of tiles.

Colos · July 6, 2019

19 hours ago, Fey said:

Do they have those already? I wasn't made aware of those sorts of tiles.

No, no ramps up to the platforms. Closest thing are the ruined ramps from the XMAS tileset.

Fey · July 20, 2019

On 7/6/2019 at 1:46 PM, Colos said:

No, no ramps up to the platforms. Closest thing are the ruined ramps from the XMAS tileset.

Damn. XD I'll need to draw some up then.

Well hey, I managed to get some more testing done on the multiplayer map. Now that I know a bit more about... how they work and stuff, I was able to polish it up so there aren't any weird bugs. It's capped at 4 players, each player starts with two MCVs (so the Mass Deposit / Supply Depot system works better) along with a couple of scouts and some infantry. There is a no-rush timer for whoever cares about that, the AI will respect it, and there are a few quick tips regarding the hybrid resources system that appear as the map begins. Player 1 is ALWAYS in the top left. Player 2 is ALWAYS in the bottom right. 3, always bottom left, and 4, always top right.

I also worked up a single-player version of the map for those who wanted to have a look. It uses the exact same AI as in the multiplayer version, so it'd be just like you loaded it up on C&Cnet, minus the random factions. There's one Atreides, one Ordos, and one Harkonnen, and the player is Atreides. As the "host" of the game, the player is always in the top left corner.

Here is a download link to both versions of the map. As with all previous downloads, simply unpack the zip and merge the data folder within with the one in your D2k directory. It won't overwrite anything except stuff we commonly distribute with campaigns to make sure they work properly, like TILEDATA.bin.
Heighliner multiplayer prototype.zip

To launch the single player version, open up the Mission Launcher, click All Missions, and select Atreides. This map will appear as "Battle Station - by Fey." To launch the multiplayer version, host a game on C&Cnet and either wait for other players to come around or add AI opponents. Or, inform other players that you're hosting a game, maybe they'll see it faster. You can bring up the map either by searching for it, or by copying and pasting this into the chat box of the pre-game lobby:
/map c4c92fc54b30d0db7fa2c894519219afaf19b4a9

Anyway, I also did a quick humans vs. bots match with LEGOLAS. I only got like four hours of sleep, so my macro is crap, but I do explain everything thoroughly through captions. So, hopefully it helps or at least is a fun watch. Here's a link to that:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oekHzy7psgc

That's all for now. Thanks for reading.

Fey · April 10, 2020

ayy lmao, here we go again.

Due to recent discoveries by @Klofkac, numerous new tiles were opened up for use. So, I did a thing! Here's the expanded tileset image:

Spoiler

The stars in the editor:
https://prnt.sc/rwl7o3
https://prnt.sc/rwl8ri

New additions are:
- Stars! The most-requested addition to the Heighliner tileset. One big red one, one big blue one, and the distant white ones.
- Full structure / unit integration. Doodads show up with their respective factions' colors, and can be moused over! Yay!
- Stars can also be moused over, just in case the player wants to name the star(s) a given mission takes place around.
- Buildable concrete for all factions, lined up from top to bottom, then left to right near the blue star. 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7.
- New infantry-only tiles for the corners and turns of Base Platform and Supply Depots. Because those were missing.
- The MD pad tiles are set to be harvestable at different rates. Top left, Thick Spice x2. Bottom right, Thin Spice x1.

FYI, Arrakis' neighboring star is called Alpha Carinae, or Canopus, if I'm not mistaken. It's a white supergiant, so the blue star would probably be closest in appearance if nearby Arrakis, and the distant white star by itself if far away. Dunno about the Caladan, Giedi Prime, or Draconis IV stars. This setup isn't perfect, unfortunately it's unfeasible given the nature of tilesets to sprinkle white dots all over the background, but you can now have SOME stars show up in your Heighliner maps. If stars are placed, I recommend using map reveal events or something of the sort to display them to the player at the very beginning. It would make sense that a star is visible without exploration of the battlefield area.

It's not totally good to go, however. For some reason, Spice (crates / pads) isn't being painted normally on the gold platform anymore. Not sure if something in the editor changed, or if I screwed something up in the attributes, but for the sake of debugging, here are the current tileset attributes:
TILEFEY1.bin

@Klofkac, any idea what's wrong? Thanks in advance!

Anyway, for anyone else curious, the custom text lines used for the tileset are 1350-1356 at the moment. I think I'll expand that in case anyone wants to customize text for one of the Freighters in particular or something, and then I'll provide a generic text.uib with the basic changes for use on regular Heighliner maps. I'll be sure to update this properly as soon as Klofkac gets back to me on why the Spice tiles aren't being written onto the gold platform by the editor.

Klofkac · April 10, 2020

2 hours ago, Fey said:

Due to recent discoveries by @Klofkac, numerous new tiles were opened up for use. So, I did a thing! Here's the expanded tileset image:

Oooh, so good, Fey! I'm so glad to see you utilized my new research and knowledge about tileset to expand your Heighliner Tileset. I'm so looking forward to see some new stuff made with this.

I could say, that the main reason of your problems is, that you apparently did not take the stuff I made for Heighliner tileset for D2kEditor 1.4 in this thread: https://forum.dune2k.com/topic/28596-tileset-ini-files-fine-tuned-for-d2keditor-14-heighliner-tileset/

Basically I updated the .ini file to be compatible with new version of editor, and I can paint spice without any problem. Furthermore, I did also some updates in TILEFEY1.BIN to make use of the new attributes, and lastly, I updated your FeyTextHiLi.uib, adding entries with indexes 1360-1377 like this:

So you apprarently missed the updated stuff I provided here and started doing your changes and additions into TILEFEY1.BIN based on your original version without my changes. I would appreciate if you took a look at it and consider making use of the changes I made there and doing your updates based on this version.

Cm_blast · April 10, 2020

3 hours ago, Fey said:

Buildable concrete for all factions, lined up from top to bottom, then left to right near the blue star. 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7.
- The MD pad tiles are set to be harvestable at different rates. Top left, Thick Spice x2. Bottom right, Thin Spice x1.

This need to be documented somewhere into your tileset for future uses. By the time I use this tileset I am not going to remember which tile it's which position (or even remembering that the tiles have different funtions), and searching for this post 2-3 months into the future it's going to be a hard. You can add a small imagen of the tileset, but removing all the tiles except the ones with something special, so you have the concretes in the same position but with "Atreides, Harkonnen" and so on written to indicate which concrete tile it's owner by somebody; just like in the early versions of the editor when Klofkack added an imagen of which key was assigned to the rifts ("1" as the top-left corner, "z" as the bottom-left corner...).

1 hour ago, Klofkac said:

Basically I updated the .ini file to be compatible with new version of editor, and I can paint spice without any problem. Furthermore, I did also some updates in TILEFEY1.BIN to make use of the new attributes, and lastly, I updated your FeyTextHiLi.uib, adding entries with indexes 1360-1377 like this:

Fey; I guess you missed this part, because one of the trouble that we discussed it's that the differente text.uibs from different languages doesn't match the same amount of lines, probably due the credits (or event clean version or gruntmods version, those also have different amount of lines for the same language). The thing it's, if I want to do a translation into spanish for my own maps, I cannot edit lines " 1350-1356 " because those are part of the credits in the spanish text.uib.

We compared the different text.uibs, and Klofkack found that you should start from the 1360 line just to be sure that:
a) No credits part from other languages are altered.
b) Not even default gruntmods text.uib it's altered, since it has several lines added for the 2 merc missions.

1 hour ago, Klofkac said:

I updated your FeyTextHiLi.uib

By the way Klofkac; on that imagen there isn't any "Key" written; It could be a problem if I write my own key values? (or if Fey do it).

For example, into the Atreides Mass deposit I may want to add, for example, "Atreides_Big_Silo" as key on the "Atreides mass deposit"; so if I check myself into the text uib it is a note to myself (or other people) that, although called "mass deposit" in game it's just the graphic of a big silo.

So, just like if it was a note, as long as I don't write "SARDAUKAR" or one of the already present keys, but my custom one just to add extra notes (if necesarry).

Edited April 10, 2020 by Cm_blast

Fey · April 10, 2020

4 hours ago, Cm_blast said:

This need to be documented somewhere into your tileset for future uses.

Of course! As soon as it's ready, I'll be sure to include that documentation.

5 hours ago, Cm_blast said:

you missed this part

I did indeed. I mean, I lurked around and read things, but with so much new info floating around, I definitely forgot about this.

Thanks.

5 hours ago, Cm_blast said:

"Key"

Ah, okay. I'll notate it there then!

7 hours ago, Klofkac said:

Oooh, so good, Fey! I'm so glad to see you utilized my new research and knowledge about tileset to expand your Heighliner Tileset. I'm so looking forward to see some new stuff made with this.

Thank you! Your research will surely help lots of us out with developing the new tilesets. And new maps!

7 hours ago, Klofkac said:

stuff

Ah, of course. Sorry Klof! I did, as a matter of fact, download the stuff from that thread already, but due to being extremely busy, I didn't make use of it yet, and then I forgot I downloaded it. I'll check that out and see if it helps!

Klofkac · April 10, 2020

1 hour ago, Fey said:

Ah, of course. Sorry Klof! I did, as a matter of fact, download the stuff from that thread already, but due to being extremely busy, I didn't make use of it yet, and then I forgot I downloaded it. I'll check that out and see if it helps!

Yeah, please take the TILEFEY1.BIN and UIB file I provided there in the other thread and look at what changes I made there. I recommend you to use it and just modify the attributes for additional tiles you added into tileset.

I took a look at your TILEFEY1.BIN you posted here and noticed one problem: you gave wrong attributes to the concrete tiles. You used correctly the "Concrete" attribute and different combinations of "Concrete owner side" attributes, but completely forgot about "Vehicles can pass", "Infantry can pass" and "Buildable", without those, the tiles would be useless.

For those three concrete tiles which are used by game, I gave "Concrete" attribute and "Concrete owner side" being value "111" which means Sandworm. Those three tiles can be painted using Concrete button in paint mode, and are meant to be "generic" concrete that works as concrete but should not belong to any player (it's expected you would not use Sandworm side as the one you play as). As you added one extra concrete tile for each side, then those can be made as block presets. In the "Structures" preset group the bottom row is free, there is room for 10 extra presets. You would use 7 of them for concrete tile for 7 different sides, the 8th side (sandworm) can be placed in paint mode. Then the remaining 3 presets can be used for 3 different star types. Like this:

@Cm_blast I guess that with this, it would be very easy to place concrete for different sides. It could be made same way in the retro Dune 2 tileset.

Also I noticed you gave the "Spice amount" attributes to MD Pads, but I wonder how this could be useful. The MD pads are supposed to act like infinite spice, so for me it does not much make sense to make MD pad with one, two or three spice units. I think if you place those MD pads with one or two spice units, those would turn into crates in game anyway, just try it.

I suppose you would edit the .ini file to add the extra tiles you added into your tileset as new block presets. Remember you need also give editor attributes to those new infantry-only tiles so that editor behaves correctly with them. If you need any help just ask me, and I recommend you to send me the .BIN and .INI file for some review before you make a public release. Thank you.

And lastly, I did some changes in the editor and I needed to modify the fill area rules a bit. Here's wow it should be:

[Fill_Area_Rules]
Void=            $8000000000000
Supply Depot=    $0100000000
Base Platform=   $0200000000
Blue Plat. Ver.= $0400000000
Blue Plat. Hor.= $0800000000
Black Plat. Ver.=$1000000000
Black Plat. Hor.=$2000000000
White Plat. Ver.=$4000000000
White Plat. Hor.=$8000000000
Walls and edges= $0;$800FF00000000

I guess stars could be included in the "Void" area type, in such case you should give them some attribute and update the rule. I can indeed help with that.

8 hours ago, Cm_blast said:

By the way Klofkac; on that imagen there isn't any "Key" written; It could be a problem if I write my own key values? (or if Fey do it).

I think the Key does not matter at all, the number is the important thing here. So you can add any key you like.

Fey · April 10, 2020

1 minute ago, Klofkac said:

the TILEFEY1.BIN and UIB file I provided

Already on it! Like I said, I just kinda forgot after downloading it. 😅 But now I'm certainly working with the updated files. Err... except the new TILEFEY1.bin on account of having needed to adjust the attributes according to the new tileset appearance anyway. The .ini was enough to restore Spice painting functionality.

Would the new TILEFEY1.bin have different editor attributes? Should I re-adjust the new attributes over your copy, or... uhh, once mine is done, you suppose it would be much trouble to you?

2 minutes ago, Klofkac said:

wrong attributes to the concrete tiles

Lol whoops. I guess I got caught up in checking out the new stuff that I forgot about the old. The attributes are fixed now.

6 minutes ago, Klofkac said:

there is room for 10 extra presets

That looks good, I like it. Apparently, something else is funny with my stuff and it shows up like this:
https://prnt.sc/rwzoty

Any idea what that might be about?

14 minutes ago, Klofkac said:

I noticed you gave the "Spice amount" attributes to MD Pads

Yee. It's probably a really specific purpose, but here was my idea...
- If the top left pad is placed directly onto the map, it doesn't have any Spice attributes. So, it's basically just a pad that doesn't work! You can move a Harvester atop it and it won't be mined. I use this on S16V2 to have some decorative MDs.
- If the top right pad, which has Thick Spice x1 attributes, it WOULD turn into crates if not set to infinite. However, here's the kicker: You can paint units on top of the tile. These Combat Tanks are actually pre-placed on top of the crates at the very start of the map: https://prnt.sc/rwzr7c So you could put an MD pad down and have a Harvester start on it from the very beginning of the map.
- The bottom left and bottom right pads turn into crates 2x and crates 1x respectively. They're specifically for painting units atop them.

Weird, but, it's there in case someone wants to paint units on top of pads or a crate.

23 minutes ago, Klofkac said:

I recommend you to send me the .BIN and .INI file for some review before you make a public release.

I absolutely will! I'll do my best to sort the attributes on my own before sending 'em to ya.

Hey, the heck're you thanking me for? You're the one doing me a favor! Thank you. lol

25 minutes ago, Klofkac said:

I guess stars could be included in the "Void" area type

The last time I messed with editor attributes, I kinda broke everything, so I'd massively appreciate assistance with that too!

I'll get back to testing this stuff and see what I can do to finish what I can ASAP.

Klofkac · April 10, 2020

1 hour ago, Fey said:

Already on it! Like I said, I just kinda forgot after downloading it. 😅 But now I'm certainly working with the updated files. Err... except the new TILEFEY1.bin on account of having needed to adjust the attributes according to the new tileset appearance anyway. The .ini was enough to restore Spice painting functionality.

Would the new TILEFEY1.bin have different editor attributes? Should I re-adjust the new attributes over your copy, or... uhh, once mine is done, you suppose it would be much trouble to you?

The editor attributes are part of .ini, so no worry about that.

Regarding changes I made in TILEFEY1.bin, I basically added "Occupied by building" attribute and respective combinations of "Building/Unit owner side" to all structures and also added tile hint texts (indexes 1360-1377 like I said) on those structures and MD pads. And concrete attributes on concrete tiles, otherwise I don't remember any more changes. So you just might take advantage of these changes already done for your tileset, or just take inspiration how it could be done.

1 hour ago, Fey said:

That looks good, I like it. Apparently, something else is funny with my stuff and it shows up like this:
https://prnt.sc/rwzoty

Any idea what that might be about?

Oh well, no idea what's going there, it's fine on my end. Did you make any changes to .ini file? Do you have the very latest version of D2kEditor 1.4 I posted here: https://forum.dune2k.com/topic/28587-map-and-mission-editor-v14-release-candidate-full-of-improvements-and-new-features/? Do you have similar problem in other preset groups?

1 hour ago, Fey said:

Yee. It's probably a really specific purpose, but here was my idea...
- If the top left pad is placed directly onto the map, it doesn't have any Spice attributes. So, it's basically just a pad that doesn't work! You can move a Harvester atop it and it won't be mined. I use this on S16V2 to have some decorative MDs.
- If the top right pad, which has Thick Spice x1 attributes, it WOULD turn into crates if not set to infinite. However, here's the kicker: You can paint units on top of the tile. These Combat Tanks are actually pre-placed on top of the crates at the very start of the map: https://prnt.sc/rwzr7c So you could put an MD pad down and have a Harvester start on it from the very beginning of the map.
- The bottom left and bottom right pads turn into crates 2x and crates 1x respectively. They're specifically for painting units atop them.

Weird, but, it's there in case someone wants to paint units on top of pads or a crate.

Ook, ok, did not even think about this way of utilization of those "Spice amount" attributes. So this trick can be used to place units on top of spice! You're pretty inventive!

Cm_blast · April 11, 2020

I realize something Klofkack. Your editor allow to do attribute editor just from inside, opening and alterting with a couple of clicks easily any tileset (something I already knew) and, if I am not wrong, this editions goes directly into the game's folder, so I no longer need to have 1 bin for the game, another for the editor. I guess so far I am correct, right?

If so, I think I may come with a bit of a problem now. By being so easily to overwritte the vanilla tilesets... have you though on a safe-protection to avoid people to add something that will break their game that easily?

I saw some programs or other editors that, when you try to use the "save" button on an original file it promt the "save as" instead, but maybe those were read only or protected from the inside and you cannot do that.

Just in the case that somebody (and I include myself) just checking around I alter any tile and hit save by mistake, or, for example, while doing the warcraft one, I constatly opened 2 times the program to compare values, colors and that stuff. And yes, I could alter BLOXBASE tileset back then, but I always opened the .bin file from your editor; so in the worst case, I needed to redownload your editor and not installing the whole game again (or asking for somebody to upload for me the .bin file).

As an alternative maybe it's possible to add a reset button, just like the funky's color tool. You press reset, and the program load default values, so even if you don't do a back up, you can recover the original state.
Dunno if that's possible to do with your editor as well.

TibEd creates a back up of the core files (templates, armour, etc...) before letting you touch the ones into the game so you can restore later, that also could be an option.

Edit: maybe it's just me, but I would prefer if Control + T went to the next tileset (as always was in previous version) and let Control + Shift + T open the list of tileset instead.
My main reason, when I start a map first I want to check which tileset has the kind of details I want, and because I don't remember (besides the bridges) I always switch bewteen others with the "rock specials" and "sand special", so I usually press "control + T" multiple times switching easily bewteen then.
Control+Shift+T it's a bit ankward to me trying to press the shift from the left side and reaching the "T" which it's not exactly too near to the left side.
So it's a bit of that control + T it's more simple and it is suppose that you will switch bewteen tilesets in a quick way while control+shift+T in the case you want to choose one specific, something you will do much less often.

Edited April 12, 2020 by Cm_blast

Fey · April 17, 2020

On 4/10/2020 at 3:00 PM, Klofkac said:

So you just might take advantage of these changes already done for your tileset, or just take inspiration how it could be done.

Got it. The tileset is just about sorted!

On 4/10/2020 at 3:00 PM, Klofkac said:

Do you have the very latest version of D2kEditor 1.4 I posted here

I might not. 😅 I keep forgetting to use the things I download, I grab 'em and say I'll check out the differences later and then, oh, there's something I forgot. lol I'll make sure I have everything in order before this is finalized.

On 4/10/2020 at 3:00 PM, Klofkac said:

So this trick can be used to place units on top of spice!

Thank you. Yee, I figure having the option available could be useful.

So, uhh... on a note unrelated to the tileset, but related to graphics modifications...

Spoiler

Kipp found something interesting the other day. It was some of Westwood's notes on possible units or structures for Melange, Conquest of the Desert Planet, which I guess is what Emperor, Battle for Dune is. Here's the entry for the Harkonnen Dragon:
https://prnt.sc/s136fe

Pretty neat, huh?

Anyway, I thought it was for Dune 2000 and was like, "well, I gotta add a flame tank now!" So I found this mod called Dune Hardcore. It's a bit over the top and silly, but some of the sprites used are gorgeous! Unfortunately, they appear a bit incomplete. This is with the wrong palette, but even with the intended palette, there are weird pixels in places. It's just more obvious here, as an example:

Sooo, I spent a liiittle bit of time fixing up the sprites, and adjusting them for the Atreides Combat Tank body palette since my Combat Tanks use only one body type, the striped / dark treaded one...

And then I realized it was notes for Emperor units, not Dune 2000, but I kinda already did the work so ayy lmao it's here to stay I guess.

We wound up with this!

Here are all thirty-two frames. The vehicle is on treads, with the mounted flamethrower atop. Faction colors are on the side panels, the fuel tank on the rear of the vehicle, the dots on the rear sides, and the tinted window in front which was formerly blue but due to palette conversions was made tinted to match the faction color. It's considered a light vehicle, but is only about as fast as an Atreides Combat Tank and can, in fact, crush infantry.

From a balancing perspective, I REALLY needed something for the Harkonnen since at tech level 6, the Atreides got Sonic Tanks, Ornithopters and Fremen Warriors, Ordos got Deviators and Stealth Raiders, and the Harkonnen only got Devastators. Though mighty, Devastators simply weren't enough! They get HARD-COUNTERED by Deviators, and cannot respond to Stealth Raider attacks so easily. Ornithopters are strong against vehicles and Devastators have no response to air, and Sonic Tanks may be generally weaker, but they vastly outrange Devastators and have the advantage of being able to fire over walls.

That said, I bumped Fremen Warriors up to tech 7 and, after some deliberation, replaced Fremen Fedaykin. Fremen Warriors are trained like normal infantry directly from the Palace of Diplomacy and are badass in their own right, being able to self-heal faster than other infantry and being exceptional versus all enemies, but no more stealth Fedaykin. Also, Fremen Warriors are trained on a separate queue from the standard infantry queue, meaning both Fremen Warriors and standard Atreides infantry can be armed at the same time.

Besides showing the separate build queues for standard Atreides infantry and Fremen Warriors, also pictured above is the new sidebar icon for the Flame Tank. Thanks, dato!

The addition of the Flame Tank means the Harkonnen get both the heaviest light vehicle AND the heaviest heavy vehicle in the game. It's strong versus infantry and structures, mostly. It's able to eat up Stealth Raiders due to their weak armor, assuming it can find them, so the Harkonnen have SOME response to that threat. Although Flame Tanks also can't respond to Ornithopters, that's fine, the Atreides have that unique advantage and they already have to brute force their way through Devastators, so it's not like they need to be gimped any further. Because LAVs are naturally strong versus LRA, the Flame Tank is an excellent counter for the other factions' primary tech 6 units, the Sonic Tank and the Deviator. This makes each faction more distinct while preserving balance as best as possible.

Here's the intel entry for the new Flame Tank, available to the Harkonnen and Imperials:
Flame Tank - LAV
A shock-and-awe weapon deployed by the most brutal of regimes. The Flame Tank is built to quickly seize territory and clear enemy infantry and infrastructure in a blaze of glory. Its mounted flamethrower can project a continuous stream of fire onto specific nearby targets, rapidly incinerating one after another. It's also heavy enough to crush infantry. Although this makes the Flame Tank a major threat in close range, it notably deals extremely low damage to concrete fortifications by nature, and it cannot spew fire over Concrete Walls. It is a big, juicy target for explosive weapons, such as rockets or grenades.

In other words, it's uniquely a fast "siege" weapon. Regarding how its weapon functions, it's not a Sonic Tank kind of weapon. Sonic Tank sorts of weapons ignore walls no matter if wall collision is set or not, so instead, the Flame Tank's weapon is a precise, rapid fire stream of... uhh, fire, with respectable area effect damage when it comes to hosing down infantry. Also, they're 600 Solaris a pop, require an upgraded Light Factory and a High Tech Factory, and have a pretty short range, about as short as Light Infantry. So they need to get in really close!

Flame Tanks have very decent armor for light vehicles, but are quite vulnerable to rockets or explosives. Troopers and Grenadiers deal pretty good damage to them, assuming they stay alive long enough to attack. Scattering infantry is very effective against Flame Tanks.

By contrast, their armor can shrug off some attacks from Combat Tanks. Here is the aftermath of Quads and Flame Tanks versus Combat Tanks:

Quads die MUCH faster than Flame Tanks, but also hit much harder against heavy armor. They're mobile rocket launchers, of course, but they're pretty squishy in order to be able to move so fast. Flame Tanks are slower than Ordos Combat Tanks, so they're preeetty heavy for an LAV, and they're able to absorb more damage from Combat Tanks before going down. However, they can't inflict much damage to Combat Tanks either.

When it comes to destroying buildings, they can annihilate single structures about as fast as a Sonic Tank, a little bit slower, but they don't have such a powerful range advantage, or the ability to cleave everything in a line. Their inability to attack over Concrete Walls is another limitation where Sonic Tanks outclass them.

Here are some more images of Flame Tanks attacking a normal base structure versus attacking a Gun Turret: