[Release] Tleilaxu Infestation (dune 2000 campaign) + Tleilaxu plague part 2 (mission)

[Cm_blast]

Back in the day I created a Tleilaxu campaign. It was only 7 missions long, and had the concept of having a building which I called “Axlotl Tank” creating infantry units for the player every few minutes.

It is about time that I expand that campaign, as this is not a sequel, but a continuation. Now, with an actual name: Tleilaxu Infestation, a 20 mission campaign that brings a new version of the Axlotl Tank, an actual new building that will create the gholas on their own. New color for the screen, new logo withouth the radar, new color for the player’s units…

Story:
The story is the same as it was before. In times of war the 3 main Houses were using the Spacing Guild’s Starport to bring their armies from the respective planets, paying a lot to the Guild in the process. But now all of them are weakened and declared a truce, so nobody is using the Spacing Guild anymore.

The spice must flow, so the Tleilaxu offered themselves. The plan is sneaking the Tleilaxus into Arrakis and using their new developed ghola tech to destroy those weakened houses, capture all the territories and, in Exchange, they will start mining all the spice they can and giving a good portion of it directly to the Spacing Guild.

The original story ended with the Tleilaxu defeating the 3 main houses in an “all or nothing” kind of attack. This expanded version still use the same story on those early missions, but then something happen...

Campaign:
For this campaign I wanted to bring the Tleilaxu ghola army alive. So I created the improved Axlotl Tank. Using a new graphic (given by the user “The Dragon” who created the graphic specifically for this campaign), this new Axlotl Tank will produce gholas at a similar ratio the original did but, instead of creating all the units at once, now it will create 1 unit every few seconds.

Now, as the story progress, player will get to use more than 1 Axlotl Tank, and each one will produce units on their own, plus new acquisitions will be added as gholas as the campaign progress, so the infantry kind of units become the special weapon of the player.

Difficulty:
The campaign has been made to be overall easy. I wanted to step down from the high difficulty from my previous works. This includes the original 7 missions, which now are completely more beatable and it is not needed to be ultra-defensive or to deploy a base in a specific order just to survive. I recommend playing all the missions including these 7 even if they were played before. Now they are much more easy and there are a few minor (and 1 or 2 major) changes to them.

Changes on the maps per Difficulty:
The new editor and the new modified dune2000.exe allow to change certain things to happen depending on the difficulty. Overall the changes are subtle, like more/less reinforcements, upgrades that are (or not) ready from the start, some terrain revealed... The Axlotl Tank itself will also produce units at a faster/slower ratio depending on the difficulty. Even for hard difficulty the game is still on the easy side, or at least not as hard as you may expect compared to my previous works.

Tleilaxu Plague 2: (stand alone mission)
I created a new "tleilaxu plague" that it is included on main download but it is not part of the campaign but a single mission that works as an alternate ending. The first "tleilaxu plague" was release as a single mission that work as an alternate non-cannon ending, and the new mission "Tleilaxu plague 2" is another alternate non-cannon ending that happens after the oficial ending. This mission (as with the first Tleilaxu plague) is not part of the "ordos" side which is where it is stored the campaign, but instead, it goes into the Emperor side. I am releasing this mission along the campaign because both needs an specific mod to work and didn't want to duplicate downloads.

I must warn that this single mission is as hard/annoying as it was the first one (and it doesn't have difficulty specific changes, it plays the same regarless the difficulty).

Screenshots:
A basic Tleilaxu base with custom color uib, custom color for units and the new Axlotl Tank which produces infantry on it's own.

A base destroyed and broken due a storm and gholas being damaged as a result.

New Icy tileset, fighting at the pole.

New tileset. A cave. Pick up crates with money using the engineer and reach the exit.

The Spacing Guild`s Starport has available units from the beginning of the mission.

Tactical map available showcasing the progress of the story.

Screenshot (tleilaxu Plague 2):
The units available on the Starport will change overtime.

Files: (Update: June 2023)
Tleilaxu Infestation.rar And dune2000-sp-patches_2022-06-30.7z

The patch is provided by Klofkack and it is needed to be able to play my campaign.
If you want to read more info you can see his post on the next link:
https://forum.dune2k.com/topic/29411-dune-2000-singleplayer-game-patching-new-features-and-bug-fixes-d2keditor-211-release/

Note:
(The original 7 missions are still available on the older post here, which are totally much more challenging).
The mission "plague Tleilaxu 2" is on the Emperor side of the launcher, outside the 20 mission campaign.

Be carefull, the name of the campaign is "Tleilaxu infestation" and it contains 20 missions, don't be confused with the previous 7 missions "tleilaxu" since I renamed the files, which means you are going to have duplicates (feel free to keep the previous one if you want to play in a more challenging missions, as the new versions are much more easy).
 

How to install:
Unzip and move the whole folder in the correct place.
It is needed an updated dune2000.exe (recently updated by Klofkack) in order to be able to play this missions, as it use many new stuff. You can download it from the link I provided on "files:" I am not adding it directly due being an .exe so it is more safe to download from his post (my direct download is just from his post).

Report any possible mistake like a mission not loading. graphics wrong, game/briefing in the wrong language and so on.

Update March 2023:
The update has to be with small fixing maps/events, and in bewteen missions 9 and 18 they have been slighly altered, making the enemy to send a few units early just so the player doesn't wait 10-15 minutes (on maps with a base already deployed) before a really small wave come, so small you can kill it even afking. This doesn't means that the missions are much harder, they are just barely harder, adding a few enemy tanks, maybe some quads... some "noise" to keep the player busy until the enemy sends decent waves. Maps are still easy.

Update June 2023:
-New graphic: a new visual graphic of the Fremen Sniper provided by the user "PsYcHo", now with a long rifle to look like an actual sniper. 1 Tactical map/intel will show it.
-Mission 2 enemy send less units to let newcomers to not be heavily assaulted that early into the game plus extra harversters will be delivered if the player loose any. In hard difficulty no changes except for an enemy looping drop that triggers later into the game that has been removed for all difficulties.
-Mission 10, the cave/puzzle map, now the enemy that chase the player will focus much more on trying to kill the player's Engineer, so the position where the player place the light infantry is not that important now.
-Mission 14: The enemies won't build Siege tanks anymore, and will use the new unit that debut on this specific mission. On hard difficulty there is no longer any turrets to help the player.

Edited July 29 by Cm_blast

[Cm_blast]

Quick note to mentiont that I forgot to add the custom color uibb for higher resolutions on the download.
Custom colors (top and right bars) will appear playing at 800x600, 1024x768 or 1920x1080.

file updated.

[Adrian]

1 Question, where do I put the "Patches" file?

[Cm_blast]

56 minutes ago, Adrian said:

1 Question, where do I put the "Patches" file?

You need to overwrite the one from your game, at the root (after unzipping), the file is just named "dune2000.exe" that is to overwrite the one from your game, whatever it is gruntmods or dunemaster versions (or any other version it should work the same), on whatever folder you installed the game itself.

In my case I didn't needed to copy other files included with the zip, but depending on the computer they may be needed.

feel free to copy-paste the original dune2000.exe (and rename it) prior to overwrite if you are not sure of what result you will get and want to revert back if something goes wrong.

Don't forget that you also need the mission launcher 1.2 to make the campaign to properly work.

Edited July 14, 2022 by Cm_blast

[Cm_blast]

I did a small update on these maps. some map fixes, an event that didn't work, and on a mission the gholas were clustering the starport making hard for regular units to land (or sometimes the game not even delivering them) so I changed them to regular reinforcements instead.

I made some missions with enemies that send just a few units before they attack normally, this added enemy attacks are really small, maybe 2 combat tanks + 2 quads, maybe a few troopers, or maybe just 1 of each heavy vehicle plus a few light infantry, nothing that will make you sweat but at least making the player to move units and being prepared for later/bigger attacks.

It barely changes the difficulty, it only makes more entertaining to play.

[Ghost.B88]

The download links are broken or expired. Can you re-post them?

[Fey]

15 hours ago, Ghost.B88 said:

The download links are broken or expired. Can you re-post them?

They work just fine for me. Didja try to download before making an account, make an account to report the issue, and then not try again? Since the files are linked directly to the forum, an account is required to download them.

If you're referring to the second link, you'll find the most up-to-date exe in Klofkac's thread, which Cm linked just after the campaign download link. Klofkac designs the new features and stuff, so his thread is the place to go!

Hope that helps.

[Ghost.B88]

Ah thanks! I was able to see the download link once I logged in. Prior to that, the links below the OP didn't show up.

 

And thank you Feda for making such awesome epic Dune campaigns such as the War of Assassins trilogy! I spent many hours, days and years playing them and I love them! It really brings the Dune sci-fi alive! A great addition especially to the recent popular Dune movies.

[Cm_blast]

22 hours ago, Ghost.B88 said:

Ah thanks! I was able to see the download link once I logged in. Prior to that, the links below the OP didn't show up.

 

And thank you Feda for making such awesome epic Dune campaigns such as the War of Assassins trilogy! I spent many hours, days and years playing them and I love them! It really brings the Dune sci-fi alive! A great addition especially to the recent popular Dune movies.

Just to point, Feda is another guy, you maybe saw "Fedaikyn" as the user:title, but there is an actual "fedaikyn" as username which he is the author of those missions.
Once you start playing this Tleilaxu one you will notice that our styles are nothing alike. On his works you start the early mission with pretty much much if not all the tech, giant maps, big bases, while here you can expect really small maps and enemy bases on the early maps. Also, my briefings are more generic and although I try to tell a story it is not as near as elaborate at that one.

Anyway, glad you like that one too, and hope you enjoy this one, probably much more easy (for the most part) than the War of Assasins Trilogy, but maybe more tricky since this one have a few of non-traditional maps (which you don't build a base, or you have limited resources, etc).

Ps: I made a campaign called "Frank Herbert" which was based on the book as well, with some liberties of course (there is no 2 guys dueling with a knife, but your CY against an enemy CY instead). I tried to follow the book as close as possible with some core parts, although 1 or 2 missions may have battles that it didn't exist on any other media for the sake of not making the whole campaign "you don't have a base". Just to point that it doesn't matter if you saw the movie, read the book or not, my campaign goes straigh to the point and it has more references that "you need to read the book to understand it" and more "if you read it, you will remember that part/line/text".

Edited May 12 by Cm_blast

[Ghost.B88]

Haha yes I realized that Fey is not Feda after digging into this forum. Heh😅

but still, If he’s out here reading this, I still want him / her to know the war of assassins trilogy is a master piece! Way better done than Emperor battle for dune! (Although that game is not bad with the cinematic and all that)

Yes, also thank you CM_blast for making all the cool campaigns! I already beat this one as it’s so unique and recommended by another Dune2k YouTuber so I played right after I finished WoA trilogy. I like the unique concept of having an Axotl tank.  

and it does seem to fit with the story of WoA: Ladsraad, as you play from the bad guy’s perspective.

The gameplay is really different now that you are always given a group of cool infantry.

Anyways, I’m loving the Butlerian Jihad Trilogy (also a master piece in terms of storytelling and having the mission to match the story, and also the intel map! It’s so cool to see a visual of the forces moving around Arrakis!), but I’m about to finish it. Would you recommend playing Frank Herbert campaign next? Or do you have other recommendations in mind? (I like playing difficult missions with a computer Ally)

[Christ Vo]

@Cm_blast I downloaded the campaign and also unzip the folders normally (technically the folders are in the correct place, I believe). But my map editor is kinda... weird.
I have my screenshots here, please view it: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1ye9PEUmf592nv2l05ehWtAisBI_8cAv_?usp=sharing

And also, the maps also not run correctly during my play. I got exactly the screenshot during the games too. It also crashed (?), at the beginning of the game I moved the units then the screen froze, after that it automatically the app back to my window.

I also use the patch provided, and my editor version is 2.2.

I don't know if I did anything wrong, apart from just "unzip" and "move the folders".

[Cm_blast]

Did you also downloaded the mission launcher? Maybe is that what it is missing because if you really downloaded all properly and you downloaded and applied the exe, (the editor is not needed at all), maybe you were missing the launcher itself?

The launcher had an update, has been a while since then, but maybe you don't have it, the launcher will load the game custom assets so you don't have to move files around everytime you play this campaign and then switch to a different campaign.

Also you can try to open any of the original missions with the launcher, like, "Original Atreides mission 5" just to see if works properly or there is something wrong, because if the latter maybe some files got moved wrong or who knows that is affecting the core game.

Hope you get it to work, and if not I may send you the "all in one installer" that there is on the forum that contain all the custom campaigns ready to play, is like a big 1 file download you unzip and just play everything withouth having to download stuff individually.

 

 

Edited September 2 by Cm_blast

[Christ Vo]

I did have the Mission Launcher though. Also version 1.3, but unfortunately it's not any help

Can you send me the "all in one installer" you mentioned so that I can give it a try? Many thanks for your support.

[Cm_blast]

On 9/7/2024 at 2:36 PM, Christ Vo said:

I did have the Mission Launcher though. Also version 1.3, but unfortunately it's not any help

Can you send me the "all in one installer" you mentioned so that I can give it a try? Many thanks for your support.

Here. Now, after you download and try the first mission to see if it works.

If it works, before playing more (I mean, you can still keep playing more), pick up this one. I updated this mission because I did a mistake I wasn't aware, it is the mission 18, so it is near the end of the campaign, so no need to rush, but if you can play missions 1,2,3... just fine, download and apply this one.
The folder is just "data/missions" and should prompt you to overwrite.

Edited September 8 by Cm_blast

[Christ Vo]

It worked like a champ man. Many thanks!!! I got other new missions and mods as well, can't wait to try it.

Ah by the way, can you check again the map from mod "Coalition of Nobles: New Enemies", as I had this same map problem when playing it (when I downloaded the mod individually, and when I use all in one installer, it posed the same problem with the map). This is mission 12 (version a, b, c all the same). I attached a sample image, you can view it.


And also the Bonus mission of the same mod (with weird black block of terrains):


Currently these are the maps I'm having problem with. I will try other maps and if there are problems then I may raise to corresponding mod thread.

Edited September 8 by Christ Vo

[Cm_blast]

I don't know what it is wrong, any other mission, whatever is mine or from another player works fine? just to know if it is mine or it is something that happens to your whole game.

just random missions you can find, or only happens with those 2 specific missions? Just load any Atreides mission, original or custom one, to see if it is something realated with my mod or just the whole game is broken for whatever reason.

But seeing how all seems so wrong (is literally impossible to see damage buildings on your game unless a files there went really wrong) I could suggest to just uninstall and delete all, and just redownload the all in one installer, doing a fully fresh instalation, withouth copying anything more and try again.

Edited September 8 by Cm_blast

[Christ Vo]

For now, just those 2 specific missions. And to be clear the game didn't crash, just the display of the map went wrong.

I recently did a full refresh though, still same weird display. The interesting thing here is how come can both individual download and all in one installer posed the same issue.

[Cm_blast]

I have no idea then, it is really really weird. I could understand 1 campaign being all wrong because I uploaded the wrong file or something, but just 2 specific missions not working is incredible odd (missions 10, 11 and 12 use all 3 the same files, either all show up wrong files, or none do, but happening on just 1 of the 3 would be incredible weird). Even the border color is displaying (assuming still happens the same way) the tleilaxu one (tha greenie/blueish mix) , instead the Coalition (wine color) which it match the color of your units.

This is not exactly a solution, but if your all in one installer works with every other mission except those two, you can at least play all the other campaigns it contains, as right now there are like around 50 campaigns to play, so you have lots of hours of content, skipping this one specific campaign won't change that much.