Longpre Responds

[Gobalopper]

Chris Longpre was active in the official forums yesterday posting a few replies. He let us know about cloaking, Sandworms, and his past gaming experience. Check them out below:

There are 3 types of worms in Emperor. A small vertical attacking worm, which swallows 1 unit. A small horizontal worm (which the Fremen Fedykin can summon & ride) which can eat several units in a row. Finally, the giant Maker worm, which could swallow 3 x 3 (total of 9) harvesters.. its big!

Dust basins are pits of deadly sand which most unit will not enter. Some units, like the Ordos Dust Scout can enter and hide in those basins.

The wormsign effect of lightning is only a visual marker of where a worm is (when it is not above the sand). The Chaos Lightning of the Ordos Palace (the Superweapon) is unique & different. -LINK

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First off, I'm a huge game player .. absolutely addicted! Ever since my first experience with M-Trek on the ol'TRS-80, I've been hooked. So, I've played a lot of games over the last 20 years ranging from action games, to strategy games to role-playing games, etc. Science fiction, fantasy, simluations, all genres. So, in my mind, there are lots of 'perfect games' to make, and each genre & type would have a different spin to it.

For Emperor: Battle for Dune, I wanted to make the perfect sequel to DuneII, the reason I fell in love with RTS as a genre. Many ideas & features came from the minds of a very talented & passionate development team. Lots of ideas & features come from discussions with fans on web-boards like this. Our first & primary goal is to make a amazingly fun & exciting RTS, in the Dune universe, for you.

On your 2nd question, we do get our own games at a greatly discounted rate. And I do enjoy playing them. Recently, I got a real kick out of RA2 & Nox. Both are very great games! If you haven't tried them, you should definitely go check them out! -LINK

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We have 2 flavors of 'cloaking' in Emperor. First, we have camoflage. When a unit is camoflaged, it remains hidden when standing still. The unit can move short distances and remain hidden (sneaking). There is a cursor to indicate a move within sneak range, and when you are not. The Atreides APC, all Scouts & the Ixian Infiltrator all use camoflage.

Additionally, we have 'stealth'. Stealth is complete invisibilty while moving. You only reveal yourself when the unit attacks. This includes the Fremen and the stealth found in crates (a bonus powerup).

Both flavors can be 'revealed' by any unit when standing right next to the hidden unit. The low-tech tree turrets reveal at a slightly better distance, and scouts & high-tech turrets at the furthest distance. -LINK

Good to see a more expanded role for cloaking in the game. You can see a few examples of it in the Louis Castle video. Keep an eye out for the contest winners to last months messageboard top 3 fairly soon, the next contest should start on Monday.