I integrated my extended mod into the vanilla d2k campaign

[Fey]

here's a download link:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1M8_jCbBd8YPS4KBKiZJoguzn5RHWpzx1/view?usp=sharing

but I'm gonna ramble on for a few down here so yeah

if you dunno how to install a custom campaign, just unzip that pack to your d2k directory. overwrite whatever's replaced. details about setup below spoiler:

Spoiler

the new exe and mission launcher are important. the exe is the latest from Klofkac himself that makes a bunch of neat functions available, like how if you lose a tech structure then the structures queue is updated just like the units queue normally is, for one. and that's only an option that can be enabled, so that won't affect other campaigns. the mission launcher is Feda's awesome thingy that can load mods seamlessly, so this doesn't conflict with the original game either.

my ddraw.ini file there probably sets the game to windowed mode or whatever, but that's also an easy fix. just open the ddraw ini and change the values as you see fit. could also set both windowed and fullscreen to true for that "windowed fullscreen" setting.

sry about that lol if anyone has a blank ddraw ini or something please do pass it along, thanks

anyway, once everything's unpacked, just run the mission launcher, hit the all missions button, and then choose atreides, ordos or harkonnen. you'll see the missions in any of those lists, like so:

want to set it up for multiplayer? just merge the "data" folder under CustomCampaignData with the data folder in your d2k directory and overwrite everything. everyone has to have the same mod to play multiplayer, so overwriting all the original files is essential in that case. this will fuck with other campaigns for sure, so consider doing that on a fresh install.

regarding gameplay:

Spoiler

regarding how I changed the original campaign:
I only configured the original campaign to function with my mod. I didn't fix any of the bugs Westwood had in their levels, I didn't add any new factions, adjust the AI in any way other than to fix it, the new units aren't suddenly integrated into unit spawns or reinforcements. the AIs will simply build them if they have the tech available, and certain units that are expected to be in place of others are present. like Harkonnen or Ordos get Shotgunners rather than Riflemen, so the placement of the expected units is, uhh... sorted, on every map.

the ONLY things I added, after consulting Kipp about it, was some Autogun Turrets in place of Cannon Turrets on some levels, and some Munitions Silos on any level other than 1. so there are explosive barrels everywhere, i guess. have fun blowing them up lmao

regarding the actual gameplay of the mod:
there's a lot that has changed. I'll summarize, first with regard to structures: upgrades take longer and are more expensive, and keeping your tech structures intact is more important. the macro game is more involved. you'll need to decide on which units or structures you want to tech up to first. getting that Barracks upgrade early could give you the Troopers you need to power through a small enemy expansion right away, but if you wait on upgrading your ConYard, will you be able to survive without any turrets unlocked?

with regard to units: the units are balanced around their various types, first and foremost. all infantry self-heal, are slow and easy to kill but inexpensive and readily available. all light vehicles are fragile, but fast with good damage output. all artillery units can fire over walls, and so on. there are more options for individual units belonging to those groups though, like rather than mass Troopers as your main infantry, you might find that Grenadiers are significantly improved and do very well at clearing an enemy base, as long as you keep massing Quads and Combat Tanks for anti-armor firepower. and the new Autogun Tanks are powerful damage absorption for your front line, but you'll need to support them with Troopers and Quads.

the AI may not build everything in the mod, and not everything in the mod appears during the original three campaigns, but there is still a lot to look at. if you feel up to playing around, you can load up any of these maps with Klofkac's new editor to have a look. or, capture enemy structures on final levels, like level 8 or 9 in any campaign, and see what becomes available.

...are you looking for a list of new units or something here? just experiment! lol

fine, I'll give you a few bullet points for looking this far into the spoiler:
 - Harkonnen and Ordos get Shotgunners as basic infantry. Atreides keep Riflemen, which are cheapest.
 - all factions get Autogun Tanks after two Heavy Factory upgrades, at tech level 6 (mission 7) and onward.
 - the Ordos' Duelist Tank is another kind of damage absorption unit available after a Research Center is built.
 - Autogun Turrets are available to all factions from tech level 3 (mission 4) and on. just upgrade your ConYard.
 - some Combat Tanks are swapped around. the smugglers even use a special mini autogun tank seen only on O4V1.
 - Fremen Warriors may be trained by the Atreides on missions 8 or 9. stealth Fremen are still a thing from the Palace.
 - Flame Tanks become available to the Harkonnen on mission 7 or higher. don't use them on concrete base defenses, which naturally absorb heat, but try them on normal base structures and see what happens.
 - if you possess a fully upgraded Imperial Barracks or Imperial Heavy Factory in addition to an Imperial Palace, Sardaukar Elites or Tyrant Tanks respectively become available. not every mission with Imperials on it, not even final missions, give them a full tech tree.
 - don't pass up the Death Hand or Saboteur. you may be surprised just how effective they've become.

there. happy?

the player usually begins the campaign maps with just a Construction Yard, so here are some build orders:

Spoiler

your ConYard provides 100 power by itself. mini Wind Traps provide 50, normal Wind Traps provide 200. without going beyond one Wind Trap of either sort, here are a bunch of starting build orders, with power / drain calculations:

Low Level Rush                          
 - Construction Yard (100/0)           
 - Barracks          (100/50)          
 - Mini Wind Trap    (125/50)          
 - Refinery          (125/125)          

This build order for the first few levels of any of the campaigns is designed to get you started quickly. You can skip the concrete under the Mini Wind Trap and it can power both the Barracks and the Refinery along with the ConYard. This build order assumes you skip the concrete, hence the power calculation values. If you feel you'd rather get your economy started ASAP, and this is certainly preferable on level 1 since there's hardly a need for defense and hardly anything on the map to attack, build the Mini Wind Trap and Refinery first, then the Barracks afterwards.

Triple Rax Infantry Rush                
 - Construction Yard (100/0)            
 - Barracks          (100/50) (Upgrade)
 - Barracks          (100/100)          
 - Mini Wind Trap    (150/100)          
 - Barracks          (150/150)          
 - Wind Trap         (350/150)          
 - Refinery          (350/225)          
 - Refinery          (350/300)          
 - Refinery (repeat) (350/375)     

Extremely fast infantry rush build order. Sell any Refineries past the second for four additional infantry each time, and 500 Solaris (on normal difficulty) refunded. This build order only supports Riflemen or Shotgunners and Troopers, but massing them so fast and so early on can be lethal nonetheless.

Grenadier Rush                         
 - Construction Yard (100/0)           
 - Barracks          (100/50) (Upgrade)
 - Wind Trap         (300/50)          
 - Refinery          (300/125)         
 - Outpost           (300/250)         
 - Barracks          (300/300)         
 - Mini Wind Trap    (350/300)         
 - Barracks          (350/350)          

A build order that makes Grenadiers available ASAP. There is enough time to pump out about five Troopers before the rax upgrade is done, which can give them some deterrence against aggressive advances. Massed Grenadiers are naturally effective against enemy infantry, which is good against whatever infantry the enemy can muster for early game defense, and their proficiency against base structures is also quite lethal early on.

Light Tech Rush                         
 - Construction Yard (100/0)            
 - Barracks          (100/50)           
 - Wind Trap         (300/50)           
 - Refinery          (300/125)          
 - Light Factory     (300/250)  

Identical to the Grenadier rush, but the Light Factory is built in place of the Outpost. Not an efficient build order on account of a low economy for the amount of production capability the player gets.

Safe Economy Start                      
 - Construction Yard (100/0)            
 - Barracks          (100/50)           
 - Wind Trap         (300/50)           
 - Refinery          (300/125)          
 - Heavy Factory     (300/275)     

A fairly safe build order that provides a buffer against rushes via the early Barracks. The Refinery and Heavy Factory immediately afterwards gives the player some grounds on which to expand his economy. The player could also use a Mini Wind Trap after the Barracks to unlock the Refinery some seconds sooner, even skipping concrete under it that way, but the normal Wind Trap also allows for the Heavy Factory after and is more cost-efficient.

High Economy Start                      
 - Construction Yard (100/0)            
 - Wind Trap         (300/0)            
 - Refinery          (300/75)           
 - Heavy Factory     (300/225)          
 - Refinery          (300/300)        

Standard for snowballing. A Heavy Factory is built ASAP to spam Harvesters out of, and two Refineries are set up in the meantime for them to deliver to. This is also the fastest practical build order for starting the Heavy Factory upgrade(s) as soon as possible.

Balanced Economy Start                  
 - Construction Yard (100/0)            
 - Mini Wind Trap    (150/0)            
 - Refinery          (150/75)           
 - Barracks          (150/125)          
 - Wind Trap         (350/125)          
 - Heavy Factory     (350/275)          
 - Refinery          (350/350)         

Basically the High Economy Start, but you get a Barracks after the first Refinery. Very comfortable build order for fending off early attacks while getting your economy started, and you get access to infantry and armor ASAP, which make a powerful combination.

Double Factory Start                    
 - Construction Yard (100/0)            
 - Mini Wind Trap    (150/0)            
 - Refinery          (150/75)           
 - Wind Trap         (350/75)           
 - Heavy Factory     (350/225)          
 - Light Factory     (350/350)     

A build order that gets the Heavy Factory and Light Factory up as soon as possible. It's a powerful build order for rushing LAVs without sacrificing early game economy, since because the Heavy Factory goes up first, Harvesters can start being spammed from it before the Light Factory starts draining all your funds.

Double Ref Start                       
 - Construction Yard (100/0)           
 - Mini Wind Trap    (150/0)           
 - Refinery          (150/75)          
 - Refinery          (150/150)          

If you literally cannot spend money on both a new Harvester from the Heavy Factory and a new Refinery at the same time, as the case may be on hard difficulty, it may be most efficient to try simply building multiple Refineries off the ConYard. If two doesn't satisfy you, or if you want to move on to a Barracks without building another Mini Wind Trap, sell a Refinery before going another direction with your build order. Or, before placing another Refinery again. This build order leaves you pretty defenseless, so you had better have a plan with your starting units.

Safe Starport Rush                      
 - Construction Yard (100/0)            
 - Barracks          (100/50)           
 - Mini Wind Trap    (150/50)           
 - Refinery          (150/125)          
 - Wind Trap         (350/125)          
 - Outpost           (350/250)          
 - Starport          (350/350)  

Similar to the Grenadier rush. The Barracks is put up early for safety, but the build otherwise focuses on going straight up to Starport tech. The Mini Wind Trap is favored before the Wind Trap because it would be needed after the Outpost anyway to get the Starport up without losing power, so it's best to start with in this build as it unlocks the Refinery faster.

Starport Rush                           
 - Construction Yard (100/0)            
 - Wind Trap         (300/0)            
 - Refinery          (300/75)           
 - Outpost           (300/200)          
 - Starport          (300/300)          

Teching straight up to the Starport. Due to how quickly the costs can rack up, and failing to account for early game Starport RNG, it's not an efficient build order, but it exists.

HTF Rush                                
 - Construction Yard (100/0)  (Upgrade)
 - Barracks          (100/50)           
 - Wind Trap         (300/50)           
 - Refinery          (300/125)          
 - Outpost           (300/250)          
 - Mini Wind Trap    (350/250)          
 - High Tech Factory (350/350) (Upgrade)

Identical to the Safe Starport Rush build order, except there's an HTF on the end. Getting the HTF so early means the Research Center and Palace are unlocked at the earliest possible points. The most obvious benefit is that the ConYard upgrade and Research Center unlock Rocket Turrets, but even with an efficient build order like this, the ConYard upgrade still finishes a little over 19 seconds (with normalized values) after the High Tech Factory is constructed. That's at least enough time to build another normal Wind Trap after the HTF. This build order CAN actually be useful on the final missions of the campaign where Rocket Turrets can be really helpful and a very fast Palace can open opportunities for attack with relatively few normal combat units.

lots of options, huh?

anyway, that's all. if you have any questions, just hmu in the replies or something lol enjoy

Edited October 3, 2021 by Fey
update mentioned in post on 10/2/21

[Fey]

just did a little hotfix. download link has been updated. a fellow kindly found some issues for me, so I went ahead and fixed them. details and some other troubleshooting here:

music wasn't properly starting at the start of each map. easy fix, turned out the inis didn't have that data so I just added the music lines.

the player for some reason has tech level 8 on the final atreides and ordos missions. nothing there, so, I just dropped it to tech level 7. doesn't really affect anything; it simply resulted in the Research Center being upgradable for absolutely no reason on those levels.

there's an issue at the moment with the latest exe where if you restart a mission, you default to side zero, which can change your faction if you're playing the Harkonnen or Ordos campaigns. nothing I can do about that, but it's an easy fix: just exit the mission and then load it up again, or if you save your game and then load it back, your faction will be maintained. this is the latest exe, so it has a bit of experimental stuff in it

an issue with sound conflicts with multi-language packs was also found. this is kind of a big one, since it can result in none of the new sounds being recognized or played in-game, which kinda ruins the mod lol. if your installation of the game has multiple language options, simply unzipping the campaign and running it may not work. the game would pick a specific GAMESFX folder, like "GAMESFXEng," "GAMESFXRus," etc. the way the new Mission Launcher works is, it copies files under CustomCampaignData into place, and then replaces the original files when you're done with a mission. given that the folder under CustomCampaignData is simply "GAMESFX," it may not work! the solution is to simply rename the GAMESFX folder under CustomCampaignData > FeyVanilla > FeyVanilla > data to the same name as the GAMESFX folder your game is actually using. likewise, there is another GAMESFX folder under data in the zip, and the stuff in there will have to be put in the proper folder too.

this is also the reason that briefings might be missing from the Mission Launcher, but the patched exe by Klofkac is very versatile and you can simply view the briefing in-game via the pause menu.

or, you know, you can just do a fresh install with the first Dunemaster link here that doesn't contain any of this MultiLanguagePack nonsense:
https://dunemaster.webs.com/files

that works too.

oh, if you need the music, just drop the "Music" folder under "data" in your main d2k directory. here's a zip containing all the tracks, including the bonus community-made ones from Gruntmods:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/15_-haRV_H2M0tX8DXFm_2Q7-d3ZD5fIF/view

uhh, that should be all. enjoy lol

Edited September 20, 2021 by Fey
typo xD

[Danku]

Very interesting update at a glance! Looking forward to trying out more of it when back from vacay, will hopefully get to stream some!

[Fey]

Just now, Danku said:

Very interesting update at a glance! Looking forward to trying out more of it when back from vacay, will hopefully get to stream some!

thank you for having a look, Danku! I hope you enjoy what you see when you get back

I'll put that more in-depth list of new shit you requested here:

Spoiler

Shotgunners are the new basic infantry for Harkonnen and Ordos, available with a Barracks at any tech level. Atreides can train them if they capture a Barracks belonging to a faction that can train them - which is any faction other than Atreides. Likewise, Harkonnen and Ordos can train Riflemen if they capture an Atreides Barracks.

RPG Quads are a high-end mercenary LAV available with an upgraded mercenary Light Factory and a High Tech Factory. The only map where you can build them without modifying the missions via the editor would be O8V1, if you have an Engineer capture the mercenaries' Light Factory. Since the mercs don't have a High Tech Factory, the player would be the only one able to build them. Notably, RPG Quads are the only LAV capable of sieging enemy positions, and the only LAV available at any point in the campaign that is effective against any threat on the ground. The downside? They're pricey and no tougher than your average rocket Quad. Still pretty badass though, pretty versatile units.

Alternative Autogun Tanks are only available on O4V1 if you capture the smugglers' Heavy Factory. They don't compare to your average Combat Tank.

Normal Autogun Tanks are available after two Heavy Factory upgrades, at tech level 6 or higher (mission 7 or higher in any campaign). Like Autogun Turrets, they serve as damage absorption for the front line, dishing out little damage to most targets but absorbing quite a lot. Missile Tanks complement them very nicely with their long range and anti-armor damage.

Autogun Turrets are available after a ConYard upgrade. They complement Cannon Turrets or Rocket Turrets, but they can be very effective on their own! Cheap, fast build speed, fairly sturdy, and a good complement to units you might be massing as it is - like Quads or Combat Tanks. They just need a little support to deal with armor, and if no longer needed, they can always be sold off to repurpose the funds. If your base is under attack, and you have a little power, try dropping one between the enemy units and your structures. They'll automatically begin repairs immediately if places off concrete, and will block most weapons in the game from striking your more important buildings.

Mini Wind Traps are a crucial part of certain build orders, and have other niche uses like quickly getting power for a couple more Autogun Turrets or recovering from slightly low power. The third spoiler in the original post contains a number of build orders, some involving Mini Wind Traps, most of which are pretty comfortable and worth trying out.

Munitions Silos are not buildable, but they're basically explosive barrels in d2k. Why are they around? Well, for lore reasons it's easier to keep an army at the ready if there are supplies like this readily available. But really, just because they're fun. If the player starts with any, it's because Concrete Walls can no longer be sold and the player can simply attack his own Munitions Silos to help get rid of starting walls he doesn't want. They can be sold if the player wants the walls intact. As for enemy bases, you'll find them on every mission other than 1, usually near turrets or walls.

The Golden Lion Barracks and Rock Dragon Barracks are the new Imperial and smuggler / mercenary Barracks respectively. Nothing special about the Rock Dragon Barracks besides a new appearance, but capturing a Golden Lion Barracks is important for training Sardaukar. There is another Barracks that exists but doesn't appear anywhere in the original campaign missions, but there are a bunch of units and structures like that. Would need to add stuff in the editor to check out that other stuff, probably not something you'll want to do but I mention it in case anyone else is reading this.

There's also a new appearance for the Imperial Heavy Factory and ConYard. The former is important, the Imperial Heavy Factory builds different stuff than the Harkonnen Heavy Factory, but the latter is purely cosmetic.

Imperial Tyrant Tanks are available from any fully upgraded Regal Heavy Factory at the maximum tech level (level 8 or 9) as long as you also possess an Imperial Palace. They are monstrous behemoths that dwarf even the Harkonnen Devastator in strength.

Flame Tanks are available from any Harkonnen or Imperial Heavy Factory as long as you also have a High Tech Factory. Tech level 6 (mission 7 or higher). They're unparalleled for wrecking internal enemy base structures, but they are completely ineffective against concrete base defenses. Unique among vehicles, they also take plenty of damage from grenades and howitzers in addition to the natural vulnerability of heavy armor against armor-piercing rockets. Consider them a light vehicle that's produced from the Heavy Factory and see them at their best eating up an entire enemy base while your other units handle enemy defenses and defense forces.

Duelist Tanks are an alternative to the Autogun Tank for damage absorption available to the Ordos from any of their Heavy Factories after they build a Research Center. Despite having an inferior range to and lower health than Autogun Tanks, their attacks are effective against any target, and they move faster too. They pair well with most other units. Required tech level is 5 (mission 6 or higher).

Regarding some new behaviors for existing units or structures:
Grenadiers are veeery different from their vanilla counterparts and serve as an alternative main infantry to Troopers. Designed to complement anti-armor vehicles, raze base structures and defenses, and slaughter infantry en masse, any faction can train them after a single Barracks upgrade and an Outpost. They are the lowest tech unit that can attack over Concrete Walls. Troopers pair well with Grenadiers; they have complementary weapons and both damage vehicles that crush them.

Fremen Warriors can be trained by the Atreides from any Barracks once a Palace of Diplomacy is constructed Alternatively, two Barracks upgrades and a High Tech Factory also unlock Fremen Warriors at the maximum tech level (mission 8 or 9). Palaces of any sort require two High Tech Factory upgrades, and the Imperial Palace additionally requires either a fully upgraded Golden Lion Barracks or fully upgraded Regal Heavy Factory. Again, Fremen Warriors are not new, but they are an elite infantry unit on par with Sardaukar Troopers in many respects.

Fremen Fedaykin are trained more rapidly than in the original game and are even tougher than their Fremen Warrior counterparts.

Sardaukar Troopers are closest to the original Sardaukar, but Sardaukar Riflemen pop out of Imperial structures when they are destroyed, and Sardaukar Elites are paragon Imperial infantry. The two common Sardaukar variants can be trained from a Golden Lion Barracks with two Barracks upgrades and a High Tech Factory, and the Sardaukar Elites can be trained from a Golden Lion Barracks with two Barracks upgrades and an Imperial Palace.

Ordos Deviators can now blow infantry away. Special tanks of any sort require a fully upgraded Heavy Factory and a Research Center.

Harkonnen Devastators self destruct much faster. However, they don't deal as much damage since it's practically impossible to keep them at bay and they would be incredibly powerful suicide units. That, and the Ordos Deviator is a bit scarier, and that's directly related to how the Devastator is balanced. They still deal more than enough damage to kill nearby enemy infantry or light vehicles, or heavily damage walls, with their self destruct. Also, Devastators are much less expensive to repair, and have faster self-healing speed.

Harvesters similarly are much less expensive to repair and have faster self-healing speed. However, they're also much more vulnerable than their vanilla counterparts.

Quads notably hit much harder. You'll probably find that they also die faster as a result, but their HP wasn't really touched. They are glass cannons.

Missile Tanks are perfectly accurate when firing on units from any distance up to their maximum. Just like Rocket Turrets.

Cannon Turrets (originally Gun Turrets) and Rocket Turrets both require a ConYard upgrade, and both have lighter armor than their vanilla counterparts. Cannon Turrets additionally require an Outpost while Rocket Turrets additionally require a Research Center. They can also be powered down. The upside? They have superior range, especially Rocket Turrets, and the new Autogun Turrets make excellent support for them.

Repair Pads are built slightly faster, are less expensive, and are available after a ConYard upgrade and after a Refinery is built. Units play a more important role in supporting the more fragile turrets, so having a Repair Pad or three around is more helpful. However, if you don't like repairing your units, it's no longer a necessary tech structure to build MCVs, either from the Heavy Factory or ordering from the Starport. So you could always just ignore it entirely.

This isn't a gameplay change, but Combat Tanks have a more colorful reskin. Faction color is much more visible.

This doesn't significantly impact gameplay, but Engineers now carry a sidearm. I HAVE seen them fend off a Trooper or an injured Rifleman or Shotgunner, but that's about it. A few of them together have better chances, but given that they're expensive and take time to train, they should really be escorted by actual combat units. They can at least add something to a group of infantry that's escorting them. Oh, and you can only train them after two Barracks upgrades are complete.

Units from the Starport are up to 33% more expensive, rather than up to 25% less expensive. Raiders are available at the Starport in place of Carryalls, meaning you can order six combat-oriented units every time, assuming each one is in stock, but you'll have to build Carryalls from the High Tech Factory. The Starport exploit isn't applicable in this campaign thanks to the latest gameplay-changing option made available by Klofkac. And yet, the Starport is still overpowered lmao

To compensate for the soft cap on funds, Spice Silos require less power and are built much faster.

As mentioned earlier, Concrete Walls can't be sold. Like concrete foundation, they must be broken apart with weapons or abandoned. However, they have an extremely fast repair speed and block most projectiles in the game. Pair with Grenadiers for a cheap and effective result!

Carryalls are significantly faster and only carry vehicles from a further distance away. Hopefully this prevents them from being an economic detriment, as they may sometimes be in the original game...

Atreides Ornithopters are prepared more quickly and drop more destructive bombs. They actually deal less damage each, but in a wider radius to get this result. They're more effective at tactical strikes on clustered enemy units or defenses, but they can be used to damage base structures too.

The Harkonnen Death Hand Missile is a proper superweapon. Not by RA2 standards or something, like it doesn't blow up an entire base, but its damage potential is massively increased. Concrete foundation can greatly reduce the effectiveness of the weapon, but only for hardier structures like Heavy Factories. Clustered Wind Traps are easy pickings. On the plus side, it remains the special weapon with the longest recharge time.

Ordos Saboteurs now deal massive damage on death, always. Infiltrate an enemy Wind Trap with one, and nearby enemy Wind Traps will take damage. They work very well for clearing out enemy walls and turrets at the front of their base too. They can also detonate on enemy units! You can have them detonate in the middle of a bunch of enemy units to outright kill infantry or light vehicles, or damage heavy vehicles, before swarming them with fast Ordos Light Combat Tanks. They can't stealth forever, but as long as you activate their stealth before sending them in on something you want blown up, they'll always be nearby their target or something related when discovered and will at least deal their on-death damage there. This makes them easier to micro to greater effect than their vanilla counterparts. The only downside is that they're now pretty dangerous to have grouped up with your other units or positioned in the path of an airstrike or Death Hand launch, so try to keep them separated.

the really big thing is that the units are all balanced around their types, first and foremost. they each have their own role where they excel, to a much greater degree than how they were balanced in the original game.

ALL infantry self-heal and are inexpensive, but move relatively slowly and are easy to slaughter. light armored vehicles, or LAVs, are all fast but fragile. armored units tend to not deal so much damage or have crappy range, but absorb a ton of damage compared to other unit types. LRA, or long range artillery, are slow and expensive backline support units with tremendous range and firepower, and can attack over walls or turrets without exception. and logistics units like MCVs, haresters, engis, etc are your "keep me away from combat lol" guys. if you count base defenses, then fortifications like walls or turrets would be your sturdy but stationary stuff. needs power, probably also needs some support from friendly units at least until you reach a critical mass of them, but hey, you can repair them on demand and that's pretty cool.

so... your LAVs are best in the open sand, swarming slower enemy units or surgically striking enemy Harvesters, and if you try to send them against a strong enemy frontline, they'll just be eaten up really fast. infantry, best if given the occasional break from combat to heal up, best if escorted by faster or stronger units, and if you throw them into enemy Grenadiers or Siege Tanks or something without scattering them first, they can be lost rather quickly. etc. etc. strengths and weaknesses!

some of the new unit quotes are intended to give an impression of what a unit excels at. generic infantry may respond if selected with "Strength in numbers!" for instance.

the first few missions of any of the three campaigns are good for getting the hang of how exactly LAVs and infantry complement each other in this mod. and especially if you want to check out Grenadiers and the new Shotgunners under less complicated circumstances than you might find on later missions! armor is added on mission 4, logistics on mission 5, and LRA on mission 6.

anyway, hope that helps ya check out things in full lol

[Danku]

YouTube video from the stream here checking out the Mod for any curious how it looks!

 

[Fey]

1 hour ago, Danku said:

stream

thanks so much for checking it out, Danku! I hope you had a blast I certainly did, joining in for this stream

unfamiliarity with the mod, and skipping past all the introductory levels that might have helped give you ideas of how to handle the enemies on the later maps, no doubt contributed to the inordinate difficulty on the final missions so for anyone else browsing this thread and wondering how those final levels might be even remotely fair, I threw up a quick clip of my own start on H8V1 just as an example. I started this on easy difficulty, same as Danku (though they ARE possible to complete on hard mode, I wanted a direct comparison), and I did an aggressive build order combining the safe economy and high economy starts.

the third spoiler in the original post has a list of potential early game build orders.

on normal or hard difficulty, the strategy might need some adjustment on account of more limited funds early on, or the mercs could be outright destroyed. but here's the clip:
https://streamable.com/j27049

the first 4 mins 20 secs, blaze it, of the map. got an economy set up, turned the mercs friendly, set up autoguns on the north side and made grens available to force-fire in case of sabos, etc. but, a tip for this map: if you set up an autogun turret above the western cliff overlooking where the ordos units come down, it can fire on a lone sabo before it stealths. autogun turrets' ROF is so high that stealth units cannot re-enter stealth while under fire from one. still a good idea to have a gren force-firing the choke just in case one manages to slip by, like if that autogun turret is occupied with another unit at the time a sabo comes down, but the turret in the right position by itself can stave them off.

I would add that simply playing some earlier missions to learn the strengths and weaknesses of the various units and structures, and how existing ones have changed, would be more effective than looking at my dumb little clip something Danku could not do on account of only having limited time to showcase the mod, but again, for anyone else reading this. so nevertheless, I do hope that clip helps if anyone else skips ahead!

[Danku]

1 hour ago, Fey said:

the first 4 mins 20 secs, blaze it

I see what you did there

[Fey]

Danku has been playing through some more and some glaring issues have been brought to light.

First of all, I accidentally put a Harkonnen Palace for the Emperor on A9V1, meaning the enemy got two Death Hands. That's unacceptable, so I HAD to update this.

Although the special weapons are balanced in a multiplayer sense, or for a custom campaign built with the mod, I went out of my way to leave as many things that were vanilla behaviors alone in the vanilla campaign maps. Even things Westwood left broken, or difficulty spikes, or AI shenanigans, stuff like that. The special weapons are a different story. Due to how they are balanced, and how it takes the player time and resources to tech up as is intended with the mod, the extremely low special weapon delays on final maps were a nightmare difficulty spike that warranted a change.

Also, while the original game had technology shown to the player in the form of intel screens in the briefing window, I did not integrate anything from the mod into the Mission Launcher's new intel screen. This led to confusion on how the tech tree develops, and hindered learning about the new stuff.

So, here's a summary of what's fixed:
 - The exe is updated. Restarting missions works fine now.
 - That dumb issue of two Palaces of Destruction on A9V1 was fixed. Sorry about that lol
 - Also fixed an issue on A9V2 where the main Harkonnen enemy was actually at low power.
 - ddraw was replaced with a default one instead, so it doesn't have my settings and all that junk.
 - Special weapon delays have been increased wherever the enemy uses special weapons. This gives more time to build up, tech up, and upgrade stuff.
 - A special tip to put concrete under all buildings is at the start of any map where an enemy Palace of Destruction exists.
 - The player receives an advance warning message before a special weapon activates for the first time.
 - Enemy special weapons are revealed from mission start.
 - Whenever new tech becomes available, there is an in-game message pointing the player in its direction on the tech tree. Play from level 1 and on for the full tour!
 - Any new units or structures built on the first level they're available on will come with a brief message summarizing their role.
 - Messages for existing units were also added, to give a clearer idea of how they might be changed or used in the mod.
 - The player gets one additional delivery of reinforcements on any version of level 3 to show off Grenadiers.

Mostly, these are just messages helping the player learn the new tech tree and stuff, and fixing the glaring balance issues with special weapons by having them occur after a longer time. You'll still need a solid strategy to beat the final levels, but hopefully you have all the advice you need on the way up to the endgame to put one together!

Enjoy.

EDIT: Oh yeah, and if you have a multilanguagepack, that issue still exists. I'd refer you to this post here on how to fix that:

But if you don't want to bother, then here's a copy of my Dunemaster installer with no multilanguagepack BS. Just do this fresh install and the zip in the OP will work perfectly.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1HikTvQBfZyEvoBbMkr5LGcCVma6MH3sJ/view

You can also find it via the first link on this page:
https://dunemaster.webs.com/files

Hope that helps.

Edited October 3, 2021 by Fey

[sbruc065]

This is AWESOME that there are new missions to play and I am really looking forward to playing!

BUT...

I'm nowhere near technically as advanced as you guys on this forum and I cannot get this to work.

I have downloaded the new Dune Installer here - http://www.mediafire.com/file/lr4j70pq0n1xnl7/Dune2000_installer.exe/file

Then I tried to copy the files a few different ways but I get a "Baselimage is NULL for SIEGE TANK or QUAD etc [gGameTicks = 0]

Would it be possible to post an "Idiots guide" to installing this so people a bit more simple like me can manage to play!!

Thanks for the patience and any help in advance!!!

[Fey]

1 hour ago, sbruc065 said:

help

Ayyo, sure mate.

So that looks like the non-MultiLanguagePack Dunemaster install, which is good! No weird shenanigans to deal with.

^^^ This here is what your install folder looks like immediately after installing. Look at the Data folder, that's the most important part.

Now, this is what's in the zip:

So here's what you do. Put ALL OF THIS in the folder in the first screenshot, also known as your 'root d2k directory.'
 - The CustomCampaignData folder and its contents are added to the directory.
 - Merge the data folder in the zip with the one in your d2k directory.
 - Replace the exe for both the game and the Mission Launcher.

To launch the modified campaign, or any custom campaigns for that matter, run the MissionLauncher application and navigate to the House you want to play via All Missions.

What do these files and folders do or contain?
 - The ddraw tools are used for rendering on modern PC and you can launch ddraw.ini to adjust your resolution and fullscreen or windowed settings.
 - The exe is a community patched version made by our very own Klofkac. If you'd prefer, you can get the one from his thread right here:

 - The Mission Launcher is the newest version by Feda, which is designed to load mods on a per mission basis. This is used so the mod doesn't overwrite the original game.
 - The CustomCampaignData folder contains the mod data the Mission Launcher application uses in place of normal game data while on any of these modded maps.
 - Inside the data folder is some new sounds used in the mod and all of the mission files.

Hope that answers all of your questions. If you have more, you're welcome to stop by the single player d2k discord; we help folks here all the time.

2 hours ago, sbruc065 said:

AWESOME

Thank you! I hope you enjoy this mod.

[Danku]

In addition to the Mod Overview above, I've been streaming this campaign and slicing the vods for historic record on YouTube - so if people are having difficulties getting past missions etc. they can have a look at it, playlist link below (so far includes Atreides & Ordos campaigns, should contain Harkonnen by end of next week as well!)

 

[sbruc065]

Thanks so much for the help! Sorry for the late reply, have been busy with work but managed now to get this working and have played the first mission which was GREAT!  Would love to see more missions in this format on this version!!  Awesome job to all involved, thanks for taking the time out to do this and make people you have never met happy!

[Fey]

10 hours ago, sbruc065 said:

Thanks so much for the help! Sorry for the late reply, have been busy with work but managed now to get this working and have played the first mission which was GREAT!  Would love to see more missions in this format on this version!!  Awesome job to all involved, thanks for taking the time out to do this and make people you have never met happy!

Thank you for playing!! I'm so glad to hear you got it working and enjoyed the first mission. If you need help with future missions, please do feel free to stop back any time!

[Sares]

I don't understand that I have dune 2000 dragged and overwritten all the files from the link above and no new drives and similarly I don't have it there is still good old dune   any fix or what i do bad?

[Fey]

On 9/1/2022 at 6:32 AM, Sares said:

I don't understand that I have dune 2000 dragged and overwritten all the files from the link above and no new drives and similarly I don't have it there is still good old dune   any fix or what i do bad?

Hey there dude!

These files don't overwrite the original campaign maps. To play them, assuming you've copied the files to the right place, you'll have to launch the Mission Launcher application from the directory Dune 2000 is installed in, and then head to All Missions and either Atreides, Ordos, or Harkonnen.

The zip is packed up to be unpacked straight to the root directory of your Dune 2000 installation folder and everything falls into the correct place. Try that!

Hope that helps.