Dune 2000 Inspirational Review Video (2020) + Learning How to Map/Mod D2k

[AZ-Stalker]

As a quick introduction, I sometimes visit the forum but haven't had an account up until now. My online origin is from the Command & Conquer community.

I've recently made a video about Dune 2000 as an uplifting showcase of sorts. I call these inspirational reviews, as they're less about the technical stuff and more about the game's atmosphere and legacy, along with a deeper message that expands beyond the entertainment. Figured this would be the perfect place to share it and give back to the community a bit. Feedback is very much appreciated!

https://youtu.be/jj2jLBsgMwg

 

EDIT: If you're new to the thread, please note that most of the conversations below have shifted to learning about how to map/mod D2k. So if you're not up for reading that sort of stuff, please feel free to just leave a random reply with your thoughts on the above linked video if you so desire. I'll quote you so you get notified of my reply.

Edited April 20, 2020 by AZ-Stalker
Changed Thread Name to Better Reflect the Discussion

[Fey]

On 3/9/2020 at 3:20 AM, AZ-Stalker said:

As a quick introduction, I sometimes visit the forum but haven't had an account up until now. My online origin is from the Command & Conquer community.

I've recently made a video about Dune 2000 as an uplifting showcase of sorts. I call these inspirational reviews, as they're less about the technical stuff and more about the game's atmosphere and legacy, along with a deeper message that expands beyond the entertainment. Figured this would be the perfect place to share it and give back to the community a bit. Feedback is very much appreciated!

https://youtu.be/jj2jLBsgMwg

Hey mate! Glad to see a C&C enthusiast stop by and give us some love.

This is nice. As a YouTuber myself, I can really appreciate what you've done with this review. Much love, mate.

Say, if you're sticking around, there's a lot more that we've done with D2k in recent days. There are new tilesets, tons of custom campaigns and maps, and we can even play the game in windowed mode or higher resolution. I'd recommend giving this thread a look for more info.
https://forum.dune2k.com/topic/27756-all-completed-mods-and-tools-index-dune-2000/

Enjoy!

[AZ-Stalker]

Thanks for the welcome, and I'm glad you found some value in the video!

I've only recently gotten back into Dune after a very long brake from the universe in general, and have already started digging around in the index thread. But thanks for the pointer, it's much appreciated. I'm looking a bit into things like map making tools and just catching up with where the community went in the last few years.

It's so nice to see Dune thriving. I'm also very passionate about map making (just not tournament symmetry stuff).

An example of my map work (ignore the empty bottom left, old WIP pic I had on hand): https://i.imgur.com/pgANj9z.jpg

EDIT: Could you link me your channel Fey? Interested in taking a look!

 

Edited March 10, 2020 by AZ-Stalker

[Fey]

1 hour ago, AZ-Stalker said:

Thanks for the welcome, and I'm glad you found some value in the video!

I've only recently gotten back into Dune after a very long brake from the universe in general, and have already started digging around in the index thread. But thanks for the pointer, it's much appreciated. I'm looking a bit into things like map making tools and just catching up with where the community went in the last few years.

It's so nice to see Dune thriving. I'm also very passionate about map making (just not tournament symmetry stuff).

An example of my map work (ignore the empty bottom left, old WIP pic I had on hand): https://i.imgur.com/pgANj9z.jpg

EDIT: Could you link me your channel Fey? Interested in taking a look!

My channel isn't Dune related, but here's one of my most recent vids. There's a Discord link in the description, and while mostly this pertains to WoW, there are some channels in the server for other stuff, like Dune 2000 for instance. Some folks do take an interest.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8puLYnkPD0A

That map area looks pretty, mate! I dig it.

I do Dune stuff for fun. My most well-known campaign is this one here:
https://forum.dune2k.com/topic/28466-release-smugglers-campaign-summers-solstice/

Which includes a lot of custom new art too, like the Heighliner tileset, the Storm Lasher megaturret, a new body for the Combat Tank, a new Golden Lion Barracks, and some more. There has never been a better time to come back to D2k editing; we have more tools and greater capabilities than ever before.

[AZ-Stalker]

52 minutes ago, Fey said:

My channel isn't Dune related, but here's one of my most recent...

I'm looking over some of your videos. Seems like you've got quite the collection! I've only recently gotten into making them myself. I see your introductory scene features a bit of Dune.
 

52 minutes ago, Fey said:

I do Dune stuff for fun. My most well-known campaign is...

Happy to have something new to try out. It's like I'm playing D2k for the first time again. Good to be back on Arrakis!

Thanks for all the extra pointers and cool info!

[Fey]

3 hours ago, AZ-Stalker said:

I'm looking over some of your videos. Seems like you've got quite the collection! I've only recently gotten into making them myself. I see your introductory scene features a bit of Dune.

You know it! What a great soundtrack.

3 hours ago, AZ-Stalker said:

Happy to have something new to try out. It's like I'm playing D2k for the first time again. Good to be back on Arrakis!

Thanks for all the extra pointers and cool info!

Oh yeah, you're in for a lot of fun. Get out there and tear 'em up, fam. And hey, if you give my campaign a shot, please do get back to me on what ya think of it! I love to hear back from folks who give it a play.

[Cm_blast]

Hi. I am an active modder, as you may see from the index my name multiple times.

If you want to try custom maps, I will tell you that the ones that said "rearrange" are the earliest creation on maps that required to overwrite vanilla files in order to play it, so I updated them to work with the launcher and not overwritte anything . For the most part these maps are going to be really simple in terms of gameplay of maps (tools back then were a bit tedious to use); just to give you an indication on what to expect.

I mean, if you want to start "slow" and just "I wonder what people tried to create" while still playing overall traditional maps (base vs base; 3 vs 3) and so on; you may want to start playing some of them. However, if you have the intention on playing something more complex in terms of objetive, like "first do this, so you can do that and later that will help you to do that third thing" (while still building a base) then my own works (not the rearrange).

If you want a good story Fedaykin War of assasins it's a good choice, with the plot of the three houses conecting each other; Fey's Smuggler it's the most extend on that regard; it is also the one mod that add new units and building as well, and require lots of files to be applied into the game just to play them.

Others are just a bit weird map that do not take the cannon seriously, like the Glory campaigns. So as Harkonnen you will use Fremen, the Atreides will attack with saboteurs and no story it's told but there is no altering (original files) required.

So there is a bit of everything there. Whatever you pick to play I hope you enjoy.

On 3/9/2020 at 11:20 AM, AZ-Stalker said:

https://youtu.be/jj2jLBsgMwg

The first clip killing your own unit and the Mentat praising you for that was hilarious.

I just notice that you already played some of the campaigns (unless the clip it's from another player), because I reconize my Butlerian Jihad mission 9 at 9:25 mark. I updated that campaign so now enemies use a different color so I can combine tecnology (3 houses units, not only Atrides one) but yes, my map indeed :P.

Edited March 11, 2020 by Cm_blast

[AZ-Stalker]

10 hours ago, Fey said:

And hey, if you give my campaign a shot, please do get back to me on what ya think of it! I love to hear back from folks who give it a play.

I'll see what I can do! There's so much I want to check out.

1 hour ago, Cm_blast said:

So there is a bit of everything there. Whatever you pick to play I hope you enjoy.

Understood, thanks for the details to get me started faster. It's quite appreciated!

1 hour ago, Cm_blast said:

The first clip killing your own unit and the Mentat praising you for that was hilarious.

I just notice that you already played some of them (unless the clip it's from another player), because I reconize my Butlerian Jihad mission 9 at 9:25 mark. I updated that campaign so now enemies use a different color so I can combine tecnology (3 houses units, not only Atrides one) but yes, my map indeed :P.

Happy you got a laugh out of that little payback in classic Harkonnen style!

At the point of recording footage (which is all mine, otherwise it would be credited for fair use) I had problems with getting my D2k CD to work on a modern system, so I hopped over to the GruntMods version. I didn't know it existed until recently, and took advantage of the many included extras like some new scenes from my other mission playthroughs. Your content must have been the thing I was playing too, without realizing it!

[Fey]

2 hours ago, AZ-Stalker said:

At the point of recording footage (which is all mine, otherwise it would be credited for fair use) I had problems with getting my D2k CD to work on a modern system, so I hopped over to the GruntMods version. I didn't know it existed until recently, and took advantage of the many included extras like some new scenes from my other mission playthroughs. Your content must have been the thing I was playing too, without realizing it!

Cm is an absolute mapping MONSTER. He has sooo many campaigns. And all of them are great! Albeit some of them come from past times, so they can be comparatively basic to what we're capable of today.

Ah, Gruntmods is a stable, working version! But, there are other versions that have an even smaller system footprint. Take this one for instance:
https://dunemaster.webs.com/files

The 'dunemaster' version installs quick, has similar compatibility fixes to the Gruntmods version, uhh... no debug mode IIRC, so not ideal for debugging, but oddly enough, custom briefings can appear in the in-game briefing window in the dunemaster version, something I don't recall working with Gruntmods. So, if you want multiple installations for messing around or playing other campaigns, would recommend checking this one out.

[AZ-Stalker]

It's an honor for my water to be allowed to mingle in these parts, thanks for the info!

I'll likely make some more stuff connected to Dune in the future and will share it here to add to the community.

EDIT: Also, thanks for the comments on the Dune video itself on YouTube. Really helps me out getting started!

EDIT 2: One of my other creative RTS inspired projects, which is TS but kinda feels like Dune because of the brown desk, so enjoy - https://forums.cncnz.com/topic/19150-tiberian-daylight/?do=findComment&comment=237693

Edited March 11, 2020 by AZ-Stalker

[Cm_blast]

The lego titan looks good; but I am so used to yellow titans that any other color feels weird to me (I only play campaign, that's the reason).

[AZ-Stalker]

26 minutes ago, Cm_blast said:

I am so used to yellow titans that any other color feels weird to me.

Being hijacked and all, the game logic requires it to change its affiliation color of course.

Considering you all shared so much cool stuff with me, I just felt the need to share something relevant back that I've made.

[Fey]

3 hours ago, AZ-Stalker said:

stuff.

No worries, mate, always a pleasure to see some more folks around here. Those TibSun memes bring back some memories.

If you'd like to use any of my custom assets for your own D2k campaign, feel free. Here are some images:

Spoiler

SLasher megaturret: https://prnt.sc/l44lv2 (The Storm Lasher is meant to be something of a miniboss in the final maps of my campaign.)
Damaged SLasher: https://prnt.sc/l44x62 (The player must keep a unit ahead of the rest to act as a lightning rod to counter it.)
Golden Lion Barracks: https://prnt.sc/rf1axz (The lion's mane makes up the majority of the structure.)
Battle of Tsimpo Heights: https://prnt.sc/rf1bag (Later on in the campaign, the player gets access to Raiders, Missile Tanks, and heavy Combat Tanks all at once. The Palace is incidental.)
Battle of Habbanya Erg: https://prnt.sc/rf1amj (Pictured are the new Combat Tank bodies, striped with dark treads, along with the occasional armored Duelist Tank of Ixian design.)
Battle of Sihaya Ridge: https://prnt.sc/rf1ast (A hastily-erected turret wall with LRA support protects the player's base. The friendly orange units are mercenaries.)
Battle of False Wall: https://prnt.sc/rf1agg (The player's forces push on an enemy base from two angles, using a force of Devastators and standard vehicles.)

I've also been working on adding Base Platform and such from the Heighliner tileset to terrestrial tilesets. Rock craters are pretty much hard-coded to appear in any terrain where structures can be built, and sand craters are hard-coded to appear wherever Spice can be placed, so the addition of artificial orange terrain to build on and artificial gold terrain to put crates on helps to make the craters look a bit better. Here are some prototype images, as well as a screenshot of a Heighliner map for reference:
Caladan: https://prnt.sc/m1pcj2 (Rounded cliffsides, greenery, and water. The Atreides Base Platform extends over the water. Bringing Dune to TD! Or vice versa?)
Heighliner: https://i.imgur.com/ps8XBbc.png (In-game screenie from the Heighliner mini-campaign. The player harvests "Mass" from exhaustible crates and infinite nodes.)
Giedi Prime: https://prnt.sc/rf175n (This Harkonnen base on the rough terrain of Giedi Prime is built on partially molten ground. Rough rock and harsh terrain is everywhere.)

Note: The Tiberium Dawn tileset was ported over by dato. The Giedi Prime tileset was also done up by dato, but I fixed some visual bugs, ported D2k Sardaukar's custom-drawn debris over, and obviously ported the new platform tiles over from the Heighliner tileset. The Golden Lion Barracks was mostly my work, with the original draft drawn up by my own sister, finished by me, and Dr.Kran helped with the shadow of the structure, and a bit on the damaged sprite. Again, finished by me. Everything else was my work.

My mod's also been meticulously balanced, but almost certainly, you'll want to do your own thing. Luckily, copying exact unit / structure behavior over is not too hard with good ol' TibEd.

Edited March 12, 2020 by Fey

[Cm_blast]

1 hour ago, AZ-Stalker said:

Being hijacked and all, the game logic requires it to change its affiliation color of course.

I know, but it is like looking at a Red Ordos combat tank, a blue Saboteur... it's like, it doesn't match. In fact, if I play a skirmish map with purple, I must use Harkonnen, any other faction it's banned.

Anyway; glad to see people appreciating the work, although I do it because I love this game and editing stuff; it helps that people keep working on making editing (and playing) easily too. I still want to do more stuff, but I don't want to burn myself, plus all the campaigns available in the index, that alone you have for a couple of months (which I see you play at regular speed, so it will take you time to do; I play that speed to). Some months ago I have listed how many campaigns were done, but the numbers went too high that was hard to count myself (since some entrance are 3 campaigns at once).

Edited March 12, 2020 by Cm_blast

[AZ-Stalker]

2 hours ago, Fey said:

If you'd like to use any of my custom assets for your own D2k campaign, feel free.

Thanks! If I decide to go mod something, I'll pop up and ask for advice. 🙃

2 hours ago, Cm_blast said:

I know, but it is like looking at a Red Ordos combat tank, a blue Saboteur... it's like, it doesn't match.

A rare stance in the modern RTS world where competitive play has overtaken most immersion. While I don't go to such a color length when playing multiplayer... I have a different kind of, eh, itch to scratch per say. Like when people build bases that don't resemble how they'd functionally be livable, for lack of a better explanation. Placing a building in the middle of a road, for example. It brakes my brain. That's actually one of the topics I'll explore in a video soon enough - aesthetics vs gameplay, in the sense of immersion or lack there of. I'm already working on that one. I don't like playing games as a mathematician fixated on getting the maximum from the mechanics and ignoring the flavor. Might as well give me a blank tileset and let me crunch numbers to kill it entirely. Hence why I don't play much competitively online.

2 hours ago, Cm_blast said:

(which I see you play at regular speed, so it will take you time to do; I play that speed to)

Yeah I prefer to be drawn into the game and story rather than speed through looking at it just as a game, so I never play on the fastest settings.

Edited March 12, 2020 by AZ-Stalker

[Fey]

1 hour ago, AZ-Stalker said:

Thanks! If I decide to go mod something, I'll pop up and ask for advice. 🙃

Cool. Cm and I are, like, THE experts on this D2k modding stuff, so, ya know. Any time.

1 hour ago, AZ-Stalker said:

A rare stance in the modern RTS world. / I never play on the fastest settings.

I like to make things aesthetically pleasing in the editor and consider functions only in-game. I used to pay more attention to aesthetics in-game, but now, only in passing. As in, passing through the enemy base while I destroy it. lol and hey! What if you get immersed while on the fastest speed? The rush will make your battle feel more desperate. Or, at least, that's how it feels to me.

I did inadvertently encourage some aesthetic improvements for defense lines through the changes to the wall mechanics. Long range artillery units, RPG Quads and Grenadiers are the only sorts of units that can attack over walls, not counting stationary defenses. So, Concrete Walls are more likely to be used by a player looking to efficiently protect his turrets or LRA, since those walls protect against much more than just Combat Tank shots.

[Cm_blast]

11 hours ago, AZ-Stalker said:

A rare stance in the modern RTS world where competitive play has overtaken most immersion. While I don't go to such a color length when playing multiplayer... I have a different kind of, eh, itch to scratch per say. Like when people build bases that don't resemble how they'd functionally be livable, for lack of a better explanation. Placing a building in the middle of a road, for example. It brakes my brain. That's actually one of the topics I'll explore in a video soon enough - aesthetics vs gameplay, in the sense of immersion or lack there of. I'm already working on that one. I don't like playing games as a mathematician fixated on getting the maximum from the mechanics and ignoring the flavor. Might as well give me a blank tileset and let me crunch numbers to kill it entirely. Hence why I don't play much competitively online.

Oh yeah, I remember playing dune 2000 and placing the two factories with a separated tiled and in places where it will be more easy to move the units around; and because of that (and how vanilla maps with rock areas small) I end just not having all the buildings available, like the Ordos mission to harvest 15.000 credits, just not even having room for enough silos.

Today I usually keep tring to place both factories and the starport together, or just enough so I can pick all my light-heavy vehicles and the units delivered by drawning a single rectangle. Also I build every tile needed, not just ignoring the 3 at the bottom or, like the online matches do, not building concrete at all. Sometimes I go overboard and build the 10 concretes needed for the heavy factory, I mean, literally, placing a unit so it won't build 2 concretes, just 1 to form the inverted "T".

I no longer go that overboard, but I still try to have both factories and the starport together (and not mixed with refs in bewteen), but some campaigns need to start building quickly, rushing buildings or simply building units non-stop; in these ocassions I won't paid that much attention at where I place the buildings, although I still will build concretes.

In fact, when I do a campaign myself if I cannot beat it by building all the concretes needed then I change the map to make it more easy; I don't want to win just because I didn't waste time to build concretes.

11 hours ago, AZ-Stalker said:

Yeah I prefer to be drawn into the game and story rather than speed through looking at it just as a game, so I never play on the fastest settings.

I play at what I call "real time speed", although the game, depending on which site you download, it's not set on that speed by default. The position on the control it's, from having it to the right part, moving the pointer 2 positions to the left. Timer on the screen and the seconds on your clock will move at the same rate.

I still use the fastes for testing purposes, but that's it.

Edited March 12, 2020 by Cm_blast

[AZ-Stalker]

I'm pretty much in agreement with everything both of you just said. Aesthetic immersion is ultimately subjective, but with already established objective game-driven aesthetic choices that bring the game up to a nicer level when followed, while balance is also key where certain situations require breaking away from such conventions for survival or testing purposes. It's nice to know I'm not the only one who thinks about such "issues" around the community. I believe it goes deeper than just building pretty bases too, as the way one approaches a game really shows a lot about the person playing it.

Edited March 12, 2020 by AZ-Stalker

[Fey]

1 hour ago, AZ-Stalker said:

I'm pretty much in agreement with everything both of you just said. Aesthetic immersion is ultimately subjective, but with already established objective game-driven aesthetic choices that bring the game up to a nicer level when followed, while balance is also key where certain situations require breaking away from such conventions for survival or testing purposes. It's nice to know I'm not the only one who thinks about such "issues" around the community. I believe it goes deeper than just building pretty bases too, as the way one approaches a game really shows a lot about the person playing it.

Yeah! Terrain design is super important too.

My maps tend to be much larger than the actual battle taking place simply to present a sense of scale, and sometimes there are clues in the shroud hinting at things beyond that battle. A Sietch with no significance for that battle, or an Outpost where someone is snooping on your progress, for instance. And with new tilesets around, we have more opportunities to do different distinct styles of terrain. Winding rock is usually what I do on Arrakis, and the precise arrangement of artificial structure is my style on Heighliner...
https://prnt.sc/rfgxhu
https://prnt.sc/rfgmsz

Developing a style is fun.

[AZ-Stalker]

On 3/12/2020 at 8:35 PM, Fey said:

Developing a style is fun.

So I've noticed.

The only thing that bugs me is that the highliner tileset hurts my eyes with the repeating lines. It's not "soft" to play on. I appreciate having such an environment, but it looks very harsh in comparison. But I also know from first hand experience it can be difficult to design such a thing and make it work well universally. Could also just be my visual preference.

Edited March 15, 2020 by AZ-Stalker

[Fey]

2 hours ago, AZ-Stalker said:

So I've noticed.

The only thing that bugs me is that the highliner tileset hurts my eyes with the repeating lines. It's not "soft" to play on. I appreciate having such an environment, but it looks very harsh in comparison. But I also know from first hand experience it can be difficult to design such a thing and make it work well universally. Could also just be my visual preference.

I feel ya. I'm not really an artist, but I did some image manipulation to work that tileset up. Luckily, we have other options, like Cm's, uhh... interior tileset. Given how Arrakis is very sandy and rocky, I branched out with colors in the Heighliner tileset specifically for the variation that differs so greatly from the original game's tilesets. Or, perhaps, if we get an artist up in here, it could be properly edited or something.

Out of curiosity, what do you think of the Base Platform structure on the Giedi Prime concept screenshot? With the more healthy variety of artificial platform and natural, albeit hellish features, is it more aesthetically pleasing there?

[AZ-Stalker]

2 hours ago, Fey said:

what do you think of the Base Platform structure on the Giedi Prime concept screenshot?

Gonna have to link me to that, as I can't seem to locate that one. 😕
All of the work being done here is amazing, so please don't take my preferences as criticism. I enjoy seeing all of this in action.

EDIT:
Some of my scripted campaign-ey work (clips of a few seconds in that video, timestamped links if curious)
https://youtu.be/FOULGvAy58I?t=243
https://youtu.be/FOULGvAy58I?t=531

Edited March 16, 2020 by AZ-Stalker

[Fey]

24 minutes ago, AZ-Stalker said:

Gonna have to link me to that, as I can't seem to locate that one. 😕

Ah, it was under a spoiler in a prior post. Here it is again:

On 3/11/2020 at 6:58 PM, Fey said:

 

  Hide contents

SLasher megaturret: https://prnt.sc/l44lv2 (The Storm Lasher is meant to be something of a miniboss in the final maps of my campaign.)
Damaged SLasher: https://prnt.sc/l44x62 (The player must keep a unit ahead of the rest to act as a lightning rod to counter it.)
Golden Lion Barracks: https://prnt.sc/rf1axz (The lion's mane makes up the majority of the structure.)
Battle of Tsimpo Heights: https://prnt.sc/rf1bag (Later on in the campaign, the player gets access to Raiders, Missile Tanks, and heavy Combat Tanks all at once. The Palace is incidental.)
Battle of Habbanya Erg: https://prnt.sc/rf1amj (Pictured are the new Combat Tank bodies, striped with dark treads, along with the occasional armored Duelist Tank of Ixian design.)
Battle of Sihaya Ridge: https://prnt.sc/rf1ast (A hastily-erected turret wall with LRA support protects the player's base. The friendly orange units are mercenaries.)
Battle of False Wall: https://prnt.sc/rf1agg (The player's forces push on an enemy base from two angles, using a force of Devastators and standard vehicles.)

I've also been working on adding Base Platform and such from the Heighliner tileset to terrestrial tilesets. Rock craters are pretty much hard-coded to appear in any terrain where structures can be built, and sand craters are hard-coded to appear wherever Spice can be placed, so the addition of artificial orange terrain to build on and artificial gold terrain to put crates on helps to make the craters look a bit better. Here are some prototype images, as well as a screenshot of a Heighliner map for reference:
Caladan: https://prnt.sc/m1pcj2 (Rounded cliffsides, greenery, and water. The Atreides Base Platform extends over the water. Bringing Dune to TD! Or vice versa?)
Heighliner: https://i.imgur.com/ps8XBbc.png (In-game screenie from the Heighliner mini-campaign. The player harvests "Mass" from exhaustible crates and infinite nodes.)
Giedi Prime: https://prnt.sc/rf175n (This Harkonnen base on the rough terrain of Giedi Prime is built on partially molten ground. Rough rock and harsh terrain is everywhere.)

Note: The Tiberium Dawn tileset was ported over by dato. The Giedi Prime tileset was also done up by dato, but I fixed some visual bugs, ported D2k Sardaukar's custom-drawn debris over, and obviously ported the new platform tiles over from the Heighliner tileset. The Golden Lion Barracks was mostly my work, with the original draft drawn up by my own sister, finished by me, and Dr.Kran helped with the shadow of the structure, and a bit on the damaged sprite. Again, finished by me. Everything else was my work.

 

Click on the spoiler to reveal what lies beneath.

27 minutes ago, AZ-Stalker said:

EDIT:
Some of my scripted campaign-ey work (clips of a few seconds in that video, timestamped links if curious)
https://youtu.be/FOULGvAy58I?t=243
https://youtu.be/FOULGvAy58I?t=531

Ah, I've tried my hand at TibSun scripting before, but I never quite got accustomed to it. It was certainly fun to play around with though, and these events are beautiful!

TibSun is one of my fave Westwood games because of the atmosphere. Cyborgs, lasers, bipedal mechs, a sick post-apocalyptic future setting, the GDI commander is an action hero, Slavick is awesome, Kane is always a lot of fun, it's like 90's sci-fi incarnate and I love it.

In terms of editing, Dune 2000 is actually quite, uhh... versatile. As it turns out, you can tell the AI to do VERY specific things. For instance, if you want your mercenary ally to land in the middle of extremely hostile territory and build a Barracks and three Gun Turrets before their first Refinery, you can do that. The game has its other limitations, but with a careful eye for design - which, clearly, you have - you can do some awesome stuff with it. And it's not hard to work with, either! What calculations need to be made are very easily figured out.

[AZ-Stalker]

The Geidi Prime tileset looks amazing! It really fits nicely and has that Dune softness to the terrain. I overlooked it from the earlier post somehow. Thanks for the link!

I'm sure I'll give Dune mapping a shot at some point given how well you've all updated and collected the needed info - should be easy to get into.

One thing that's messing with me currently is getting AI bots into multiplayer. Wanted to play matches with my brother in skirmish, us against bots, like in any other RTS, but the GruntMods version via cncnet doesnt seem to have that option. Tried putting in some custom vsAI maps, but they just error the game and we're back to square one. Any advice on this matter?

[Fey]

1 hour ago, AZ-Stalker said:

The Geidi Prime tileset looks amazing! It really fits nicely and has that Dune softness to the terrain. I overlooked it from the earlier post somehow. Thanks for the link!

I'm sure I'll give Dune mapping a shot at some point given how well you've all updated and collected the needed info - should be easy to get into.

One thing that's messing with me currently is getting AI bots into multiplayer. Wanted to play matches with my brother in skirmish, us against bots, like in any other RTS, but the GruntMods version via cncnet doesnt seem to have that option. Tried putting in some custom vsAI maps, but they just error the game and we're back to square one. Any advice on this matter?

Thanks for having a look. The original tileset does not use Base Platform, but like I said, orange rock craters unless you edit the data.r16. So, the purpose of such terrain is to fix graphical compatibility issues between Arrakis maps and alternative locations in the same campaign.

You'll have fun, I'm sure.

Ah, yes. So, AIs in campaigns can be massively varied, but in multiplayer, an AI should be enabled ONLY for side zero. Sides one through seven cannot be used. Any AIs you add to the game through C&Cnet will inherit the AI in slot zero. Kind of weird how that works, but yeah. Hope that helps!