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Are there any existing modified versions for dune 2000 containing all Emperor Battle for Dune Units?


Dr.Kran

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5 hours ago, Dr.Kran said:

Like the grenadier modification there should be a way to place more features into Dune 2000; If you can make one or have one then display it in reply, guide and link form.

Adding new units to the game is, at this time, impossible. There are only so many text entries for units, only so many graphics spots for new things to be implemented, and even then you need to work within the existing palettes on whatever spriteset you're overwriting. Even if we could add new unit behavior, we would have several other hurdles to overcome.

However, you can overwrite existing unit behavior in such a way that it allows for the addition of new units. For instance, my mod has four especially notable new things: The Storm Lasher megaturret, Shock Raider and RPG Quad LAVs, and Duelist Tank armor.

The Storm Lasher uses the behavior of the Atreides High Tech Factory, and the Atreides High Tech Factory has been given the behavior of every other High Tech Factory. This means I cannot place an Atreides High Tech Factory for a non-Atreides faction, but it facilitates the existence of this new structure. I've also needed to change the text files so that whenever a Storm Lasher is moused over, it doesn't read "Atreides High Tech Factory," but it reads "Storm Lasher."

The Duelist Tank completely overwrites Thumper Infantry. Thumper Infantry don't exist anymore, but the Duelist Tank can now be built by those factions that use it - Ordos, smugglers, and although they never actually build them during the campaign, the Imperials can produce Duelist Tanks as well.

Shock Raiders and RPG Quads have more complicated behavior. They share behavior with Devastators and Carryalls respectively, so if you can build RPG Quads, you can never build Carryalls. And vice versa. Thus, only allocation index 7 (or similar indexes, like 13) is allowed to build RPG Quads in case that wants to be used in a campaign. And unfortunately, every faction other than Harkonnen cannot build Devastators, even if they capture the requisite structures. Instead, they get Shock Raiders. Furthermore, the names will show up exactly the same - you can't have Carryall and RPG Quad on the same map, or Devastator and Shock Raider. There are ways around this, like if the player doesn't have Deviators and it's at tech level 4 or higher, then the enemy can have RPG Quads because mousing over them only turns up, "Enemy Unit." When you tech up to Carryalls, the name only the player sees will appear properly on the sidebar. Still, while it does complicate things and make it harder to work with stuff, the existence of multiple new units justifies the extra difficulty in design.

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  • 4 weeks later...
On 5/26/2019 at 7:01 AM, Fey said:

Adding new units to the game is, at this time, impossible. There are only so many text entries for units, only so many graphics spots for new things to be implemented, and even then you need to work within the existing palettes on whatever spriteset you're overwriting. Even if we could add new unit behavior, we would have several other hurdles to overcome.

However, you can overwrite existing unit behavior in such a way that it allows for the addition of new units. For instance, my mod has four especially notable new things: The Storm Lasher megaturret, Shock Raider and RPG Quad LAVs, and Duelist Tank armor.

Basically, anything new would require room that is probably taken up by something else? What if, its something that, in theory, "exists," but not actually a thing? Like a proper Combat Tank for Mercenaries or Fremen?

How does the Grenadier or the Stealth Raider work? My physical copy of the games doesn't have those. But online versions do. Were they patched in or are they from some mod? Also, if someone were to add new units, as in brand-new, how many slots or how much space do they have to work with?

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3 hours ago, Colos said:

Basically, anything new would require room that is probably taken up by something else? What if, its something that, in theory, "exists," but not actually a thing? Like a proper Combat Tank for Mercenaries or Fremen?

How does the Grenadier or the Stealth Raider work? My physical copy of the games doesn't have those. But online versions do. Were they patched in or are they from some mod? Also, if someone were to add new units, as in brand-new, how many slots or how much space do they have to work with?

Grenadiers and Stealth Raiders are marked as multiplayer only and can be added to the original game.

And yeah, basically, but Combat Tanks work really funny. We're not really sure how their behavior sharing works, but you could hypothetically swap Combat Tanks between factions if you overwrite the factions. My mod gives the heavy CT to the mercs, light to the Fremen, and medium to the Imperials.

Adding a whole new type of Combat Tank though? That would take a spot up. You have three, pretty much, before you start overwriting stuff. So.

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14 hours ago, Colos said:

How does the Grenadier or the Stealth Raider work? My physical copy of the games doesn't have those. But online versions do. Were they patched in or are they from some mod? Also, if someone were to add new units, as in brand-new, how many slots or how much space do they have to work with?

Fey is right but also wrong.
Yes; grenadier, St Raider and the Sardaukar (for Harkonnen) are multiplayer units only, but exist two versions of Dune 2000; v1.02 y v1.06 perhaps? (I may be thinking in dune 2), but the thing it's, in the old version, does units don't exist, not even in multiplayer games. 

The patch can be found easily on the dune2k webpage.

About the adding new things; I have no clue, but if you use Tibed (a tool that allow to edit the tech tree, cost of units, rate of fire of the units and much more) a message appears saying that adding new units (new slots) it's impossible. This tool is compatible with other westwood games (but I never use it on those), so maybe it's just a limitation of the code and how many bytes/bits takes the current amount of units, adding 1 more "breaks" everything or something like that.

Since only the imperials and mercs has something unique (heavy fact) I guess they were not thinking on giving them a full covered faction. Mercs reuse Ordos units so they are more easy to understand for the player "Ordos buildings/units = do not destroy". And the imperials have the heavy fact different to avoid them to produce devastators.

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