Dune Legacy Networking started

[TonyD]

oopsy you need dune.pak,

Ill adjust the readme.txt

Thanks for the info :O

[stefanhendriks]

@Tony, right thats what i meant. What i did:

- is the goal cell occupied?

- is it occupied by a unit?

- is this unit going anywhere?

- if so, try again in 0.5 second

- if not, search for alternate goal:

alternate goal is an attaching cell. If you repeat this (since you move a group) you get a lot of units ending up in a nice group.

My path finder is now more like an FDS with some cost built in, it makes funny paths sometimes and sometimes they are unlogical. However, it works and it does not need my prior attention.

[TonyD]

okay,

Thanks stefen, that slowdown is now fixed for the next version.

Gobalopper, what do u reckon I should do about those anoiying tanks sounds u speak of?, I can reduce the frequency of the crdeits noise easy.

[Gobalopper]

It might just have been the large number of Siege Tanks I had, I probably never had that many when playing Dune II. I don't know how the current sounds are handled but maybe have options to vary the sound levels. Like one level for music/building status updates and another for unit sounds?

[TonyD]

Okay sounds good, Ill add that to menu system soonish.

How do guys think the input commands should be handled? In particular, when you right click a group of say quads to go to a particular location, should they go there without question, and once stopped attack any enemies, or should they attack any enemies they see on the way. Or perhaps maybe they do the second option by default, unless u do a force move with shift key...... What are your thoughts on this?

[vidiware]

Good you are continuing we need a good clone and neonext have currently abandoned his project. ;D

Is it possible to make different settings (Agressive -> Will stop and kill units the see, No attack -> Just try to reach goal no attack..., Escape -> Will try to move out of attackers way before reaching destination)

[TonyD]

Hmm, like the aoe way yes? Hmm it already has some attack mode buttons... I could modify the types of attacks modes, for agressive, normal, Scout modes..... Considering..............................................

[TonyD]

The problem with this could be you want to retreat your units quickly, but the units would ignore your movement commands unless u clicked the normal attack mode first. :-

Could be a bit annoiying....

I'm not sure how its done in other games, ithink i they just go to destination by default, unless u have used attack. Ill have a look..

[vidiware]

You could make your movement priored. so if you "double" move it it will go there at any cost even if it is in a mode. and when it have arrived it use its regular mode

[stefanhendriks]

problems like these can be solved when the user explicit gives the unit a move order, it will override any kind of 'mode' it is in.

In Arrakis i had a normal mode and a guard mode. Guard mode would let the units attack anything nearby, only when NOT doing anything. So, whenever they where going , they would stay on the track and not attack anything at all. When they where on normal mode, they would only 'return fire'. So, when they get shot, they will attack the enemy until its destroyed. (the unit would go after the enemy if it would retreat).

Probably you can have more modes; like 'defence', the unit only returns fire, and will stay put.

about sounds btw... i crashed my clone with it.. oops ;) I had to add a max, i fixed some things here and there and built in a limit of 25 sounds a second at max.

[TonyD]

I think I will be going with stefen's suggestion, it is both easy and the standard way I believe. Thanks anyway Vidiware for your good solutions. ;D

If anyone wants to modify the original dune levels, perhaps mov units further from the base so they don't attack immediatly, such as 1 and 2 which are next to impossible to complete currently feel free to do so and if u send em to me I'll probly add to next version. You'll have to use an original dune2 level editor for those original type maps though.

[stefanhendriks]

odd, the original dune 2 maps (1 and 2) both are pretty easy to win even with your startin units. For mission 2 the computer wont even attack as much as usual.

[minniat]

I tested it. It's really good TonyD. The control over the units is excellent

- even better than in Dune2k. Worms look pretty cute.

And I think that the original icons still look best in lores 320x240 resolution ;)

[minniat]

Oh, and yes it's really hard. Enemy is rushing me before

I could build single refinery >:(

[vidiware]

I have a really good tip for you:

Have theme based music like dune2...

in attack have siege music...

And when you are in peace and building, have some building music..

[tag]

I just wanted to make a suggestion as to the unit pathfinding.

Instead of having the unit check to see the status of the target cell, why not instead stick with one pathfinding routine but add a routine that determines the availability of the cell the unit immediately plans to enter enroute to the objective. Once it reaches a dead-end, then it closes the initial pathfinding routine.

This would have the added value of allowing the player to target inaccessible tiles such as mountains (for vehicles), structures, and other units. The unit would move as close as it could to the objective without having to worry about whether or not it's occupied.

Of course, I have no idea what your code looks like so I don't know if this advice has any practical value at all. A little brainstorming never hurts, though.

--Bashar

[TonyD]

Bashar - I've got something like that working right now using a simple timer thingy, if it can't get any closer to its dest for say 5 tics, it gives up and sets its dest to its location - This stops the units from getting stuck in a random spot on route too.

Vidiware - ok, will do.

Stefen - hmmm, well if they're possible thats good, I guess I didn't try to hard, I found them very difficult, about 20 soldiers attack you immediatly, with about only 5 defenders.

[stefanhendriks]

what i actually meant was that the original dune 2 missions in DUNE 2 itself are not hard to beat. So if they are on your clone, you need to tune some things ;)

btw, w00t, i got carryalls in working, dropping my harvester and such! :D

[TonyD]

Hmm, u reckon eh? I'm aiming to balance the way units are just slightly enough for them to be useful, unlike how they were in the original, otherwise they are almost pointless putting in the game for the later levels.

How long till we can get a binary of your stefen? I'm looking forward to it :D.

Oh btw I've posted 0.36 on my site.

[stefanhendriks]

well, i will post up binaries when they are usefull to play with . A simple mission with an enemy for example. But if you insist, mail me and i will send you a copy i have here... beware, it is around 800K zipped.. ( i dunno about ace).

[nemafakei]

Have you got some method of random spice regeneration? I remember the worst thing in DII was running out of spice in the last missions. All it needs to be is enough to replenish a little bit to keep one side building.

(sorry if you've done this already - I've not played a game in months)

[stefanhendriks]

i am thinking about the way of spice blooms. However, they will explode in a while. So you don't need to get over them first; ofcourse you should be able to shoot them if you want to.

[SpiceGuid]

In version 0.35 I can no more place worms in map editor. That ruins my dreams of fremens campaigns (with player-controlable worms like in version 0.15).

Only temporary I guess.

I did not tried multiplayer. Will my oponents use del key?

I appreciate you keep the good work.

I know there is a BIG difference between "you can play my prototype clone" and "you will not play Dune 2 anymore".

SpiceGuid

[TonyD]

SpiceGuid - I am able to place the worms in 0.37, you just can't see that they are there other then in the radar, ill fix that sometime soonishly.

Nema Fakei - I have spice blooms working right now, I just have to decide on a good time period for the blooms to spawn.