Melange Update

[Gobalopper]

Here is the latest update from Stuart and his Melange article. The entire thing can be found here.

MainMenu:

- Added Firing Range tutorial mission.

Arrakis:

- Emphasised the height of dunes. Higher ground provides bonuses to attacking damage, and firing and sight range. You can also use the terrain as cover.

- Tidal Dust Basins now vary in fineness. Some are only a danger to heavy Vehicles. The more volatile Dust Chasms are a danger to any unwary Unit.

- Emphasised the use of "desert power" in the southern regions beyond the safety of the Shield Wall.

- Visibility is reduced when a Unit is caught in a Sandstorm or Blizzard. It will be tremendously difficult to target Units inside the storm.

- Added Battery Crate.

- Certain units can become unavailable in a particular terrain set, scenario or under hazardous conditions.

- Mentioned some civilian buildings that can be captured for your use, such as power plants and treasuries.

Interface:

- Provided some more details on House-specific music settings and dynamic music clips in the CD Player section of Game Controls on the Options Menu.

- Updated some of the images due to changes elsewhere.

- Fixed the logic for non-offensive Units in a Group.

- Added the Shift+1..0 technique for adding Units to an existing Team. Consequently changed the key for status check-ups to the combo Shift+Alt.

- The computer no longer places construction ON HOLD when there are no funds available. Construction continues automatically once you gain more credits, without having to manually toggle the ON HOLD state.

- Made it a little more clear that you can still cut power to most Structures that are not equipped with Stormsheaths, as in Tiberian Sun.

- Starport prices can sometimes exceed the standard cost for a Unit. House Ordos receive special priveleges from their alliance with the Guild, allowing them to order twice as much stock in a single transaction.

- Added some improved logic that takes advantage of weapons range when engaging an enemy target. Thanks to Maurice for this and several other Interface improvements.

- For Aircraft, the Scatter command will allow them to dodge enemy fire.

- Included a categorical structure for saving games.

- Added a number of kills per player tally on the Multiplayer Panel.

Unit:

- Added Corrino Gargoyle and Atreides Falcon aircraft.

- Removed Havoc Missile and made the other Tactical Missiles a little more distinct and useful.

- Burrowing Units such as the Atreides Sandborer cannot penetrate terrain hazards, such as Tidal Dust Basins.

- Added a bit of marketing splash at the end of the design to create awareness of the Duniverse's potential.

I was wondering if anyone had tried printing the article? Since it is a little long it may be easier for some people to print it off and read it at their leisure. I will look into making it a little more "printer" friendly if it isn't already.

Update - Just finished the "printer friendly" version of Melange. It basically makes the background white and text black. There still may be problems with images and table formatting but there isn't much I can do about that. Keep in mind, you will need a lot of paper to print it all, there are about 150+ single-sided pages.