Dune Legacy News

[MuLLeT MaN]

TCP/IP is already there? Ah....Didn't even notice what that big box was for! [Cracking up laughing]

[MuLLeT MaN]

Whats the general concensensus on harkonnen/ordos/atreides allowed units and such. Do you guys think I should add the restrictions, such as no orni for harkonnen, no troopers for atreides.

Hell yeah, having the option to turn the house-restrictions on or off would be an excellent idea, hehe.

Each house's units/buildings have different statistics as well.

(It's in the feature list I put above too)

[nemafakei]

Is it just me, or are there always about half the proper graphics files missing? I used the files from the older versions... the program simply won't run (generating object requireds in the stderr text file) without them...

And the bottom half of all buildings never display correctly... they always randomly seem to take graphics from other cells for me; this bug has been present since v0.77, I think.

[TonyD]

its probly a good idea to do a fresh install with each version. I'm not sure why this stuff happens, perhaps I should look into it.

[stefanhendriks]

Tony is right, i had a similiar problem earlier and a fresh reinstall worked fine.

[vidiware]

Can you make a new "move ordered crusor... i think its not very nice"...

And yeah worms are supposed to disappear after 2 or 3 eatings not eating my entire army of tanks... :P

Please correct this... worms are 2 fast and dangerous

[TheGouldFish]

VidiWare:

In the original Dune II the stand worms would not leave the map till you had attacked it and got it's helth down to half.. The sand worms in the books were very fast and Very Very dangerous ;D

TonyD:

I seem to have a werid bug, when in full screen (Res 800X600)I have not GFX at the bottom of the radar / unit pane in the main game...

Not sure if this is the for every one...

keep up the great work.

[vidiware]

:P Well... they did disappear... after 2-3 attack (i think they came back, on another place of the map). If not they are loosing health by attacking...

But Tons worm is crazy its eating and hunting at the same time ;D

Fast and dangeroius but not able to eat an entire house...

[ead]

hello TonyD!

first of all: a really great work you have done! its incredible!

of course i played the skirmish-mode,

and may be i can give some hints:

- speed problem:

probably its an individual problem of my 600 athlon,

but somehow the game is a bit too fast...

i mean, in battles its impossible to think about formations or whatever,

just 10 seconds and all is over ;)

for instance the deviator is of no use - you have not the time to send

the deviatet units to their new missions and so on..

i read here something about a "-"-key but that did not work :(

- MCV

as i deploy a MCV, the new CY is in the yellow-damage-level

- factorys/starport deploying place

anybody knows earth2150? there you can set a point on a map,

where a constructed unit will sent to..

this would be a nice feature :)

- sardaukar

can't build sonic tanks -> in super dune 2 they could ::)

- sonik tanks

they do damage to each other AND THEM SELVES!! both is really bad :'(

check this out: let a single sonic tank destroy one harvester after another

(by leaving the enemy with a single refinery) and see the sonic tank dying

and then the problem with groups: if not in a straight line,

they will do more damage to each other than to an approaching opponent..

- "radar & so on"-bar on the right

i don't know, how this exactly happen,

but by switching between the legacy window and some other programs,

suddenly this bar was away - did i pressed a specific key?

how can i re-activate the bar again?

[Cyborg]

- sonik tanks

they do damage to each other AND THEM SELVES!! both is really bad :'(

check this out: let a single sonic tank destroy one harvester after another

(by leaving the enemy with a single refinery) and see the sonic tank dying

and then the problem with groups: if not in a straight line,

they will do more damage to each other than to an approaching opponent..

All sonic tanks is invulnerable to sonic in Dune2.

This because they're hard t control ;D

[SpiceGuid]

Great update (with self-destructible devastator).

The "-" and "+" keys work well for me.

[ead]

All sonic tanks is invulnerable to sonic in Dune2.

This because they're hard t control ;D

this makes me a bit confused ...

let me gather the things and bring them in some order:

imagine you have a SINGLE sonic tank somewhere in the landscape

(no enemys no worms or whatever)

now:

- in dune2 this single sonic tank cannot die by simply firing around

(no specific target - just blow up sand)

but:

- in dune2legacy this single sonic tank would die by just simply firing around

=> this is not really a question of control - thats just a bug ;)

compare it to this: the Death Hand would destroy the palace from which it was fired

the other problem is, that, if you have TWO sonic tanks,

the first one could damage the second one.

THIS is a matter of control

but in dune2,

a sonic tank COULD NOT damage another one - regardless of side (friend/enemy)

well, in dune2k it is different, i know ;)

but i would prefer to choose the first way.

and here comes the reason:

the sonic tank is just unusable, the way he is now,

just try it out:

-make a group of 10, and go for a small battle

you will be easily defeated by two or three siege tanks,

especially at high game speed

-now, take a group of 10 rocket launchers,

facing these three siege tanks, you won't have casaulties

finally the question:

why use sonics? coolness (at a higher price)? ;D

its just the thing: if a unit (or weapon) is uneffective - nobody use it!

same goes with Death Hand:

in Red Alert the Nuke is accurate but TOTALLY uneffective => no sense to use it

much better is the idea of heavy destruction at luck - so it makes the DH attractive,

but still not too powerfull..

oh, here is another point, i want to mention:

it seems to me that the siege tank is a bit underpowered,

its just because i tried out different unit-mixes,

and finally the best one is: launcher-only ..

.. or have others different experiences?

please tell!!

[MuLLeT MaN]

*Above Rant*

What Dune Legacy version are you using?

[ead]

What Dune Legacy version are you using?

I'm using legacy 0.88b2 .. (fresh install)

[TonyD]

okay I have posted a new version, with a few minor but important changes:

added power and spice level indicators to game bar.

fixed shrinking shroud after loading game.

fixed structures not being drawn sometimes when next to shroud.

fixed harvesters not returning to specified spice field.

fixed carryall and frigate pauses after dropping/picking up units.

added multiple save game spots with description - old save games will NOT be compatable.

added very basic double buffering option which might fix only serious screen flickering.

changed sonic tanks so they don't hurt other sonic tanks (or themselves! :).

made launcher more inaccurate, slowed turnspeed - Ill try to make them behave more like in dune2 later.

fixed mcv-deployed construction yard half-damaged in concrete-required mode.

made worms slower, dissapear after 3 kills or death, and come back after random time, in a random location.

added dune2 icon to executable! This is my favourite one :)

-----------------------------

Thanks all you guys for comments and suggestions! ;)

ead: I made the launcher much more inaccurate now, so let me know what you think now. The turreted tanks (siege and com) sometimes have a good advantage over most other units if used wisely in that they will attack any ememies whilst moving. You can retreat whilst still defending, and other sorts of similar tactics. Although Ill look into it and may increase their hitpoints or armour.

You can set gather points for buildings already (except for the starport - will fix), just right click somewhere when selected, and right click on actual building to cancel.

Try tab to toggle the gamebar.

TheGouldFish:

I haven't got around to adjusting the gamebar for the different resolutions as yet, because I havent decided on a final design. But.. if anyone wants to wip up some versions of the bar for the other resolutions, please do, and ill get it setup for them with useable buttons. Just don't change the bars width because i'd like to keep the full radar on the screen. Im not sure what ill do with the 320 resolution because the button images will not fit im sure... hmm.

Vidiware:

What do you mean? "move ordered crusor... i think its not very nice"

I think you mean like a flash, or green cross which will tell you whether they're attacking a particular unit, or something? This occurs in d2k, and i like it so ill hopefully get that done.

[Cyborg]

made launcher more inaccurate, slowed turnspeed - Ill try to make them behave more like in dune2 later.

Heh the rocket tanks in dune2k is totally perfectly balanced.

Balance at the cost of realism ;D

In dune2, a rockettank can fire a rocket which end up behind it ;D

[ead]

[loading function]

does not work correctly ... you allways get the last saved game or so

[short key]

is there a short-key to place a building?

i mean, when its ready to place, i dont want to klick with the mouse on that icon on the bar..

( thats a bit annoying when building many many concrete or walls :) )

[repairing/carryalls]

someone said it, i believe, i just wanted to remind ::)

[crash]

i can't tell exactly why it happen, but as i found out,

it could have something to do with the sonic tanks again :P

when attacking with a large group of sonics an enemy base, the game crashes

-surprisingly this did never happen by attacking with siege tanks or rocket launchers

-the chance of crasing is increased, if there are enemy units in the fight

though i could recreate this crash very often, its not guaranteed :(

but i have the following proposal:

- make a constant random-seed (very import to redo these kind of crashes)

- and now the major thing is: log all user-commands (with timestamp!)

now i would run some tests, trying to get that crash and send you this logfile (+savegame)

than you can recreate the crash at the same time and with the same paramters over and over again,

a good thing for debugging i suppose ;)

[tanks]

yeah, the ability to shoot while moving is really really great!

fantastic idea! makes the sieges & coms to usable and good units :)

[rocket launcher]

the rocket launchers are now fair, too.

although they are sometimes a bit weak against a single (rocket)trooper

but there are no changes needed yet (have to test this more in detail first)

[sonics]

thanks for that patch - worked fine! .. aside from the crash ;D

[TonyD]

ead: try downloading it again, I posted the same version with crashing bugs fixed multiple times because i didn't thoroughly test it. I'll make it so the middle mouse button, places structures for next version maybe. I thought it was possible to repair carryalls already? Maybe its broken again, ill check sometime. The save game problem is fixed for latest upload, so if you do get crashes with latest version, easiest and best way fior me to catch bugs is to get a copy of the savegame.

[ead]

I thought it was possible to repair carryalls already?

oh sorry, i expressed my self a bit unlucky - due english is not my native language ;) what i wanted to say is: it would be great, when carryalls would pickup damaged units and transport them to the repair-station and then back to the battlefield .. as someone mentioned this should be only done when requested (by pressing a key or something)

if you do get crashes with latest version, easiest and best way for me to catch bugs is to get a copy of the savegame.

[crash]

sorry to tell this, but they are still lurking around :'(

yes, i can mail you my savegame, but the problem is:

it is not so easy to redo these crashes by simply loading that savegame and do something specific

the reason is that many decisions from the enemy are based on random (the random-function to be exact) i suppose

so every time loading the same savegame slight different things will happen..

that means the crash cannot be caused a reliable way to debug it effectivly

but: the solution to that problem is to set random-calculation to a solid value (with a function called "srand" or so)

now every time you load the savegame, the ai will do the same things... if..

IF the user (the human player) does the same things he always did!

i mean, i can't save just before the crash occurs, cause i don't know, when this happens...

now there a two solutions:

1) you could build in an auto-save every second or so

2) log all user-commands (ie: if a user send a unit to attack - log this (+timestamp!!) )

than, for debugging, this log should be used to recreate the EXACT situation just before the crash

i propose, we try the first solution first, cause it will not take too much implementation time

what do you think?

[frigate]

let come a frigate (bringing something), now, after it successfully unloaded that stuff,

it will fly away - and in that moment press esc -> menu will open and the frigate will stand still..

by pressing esc again, the menu will vanish, but the frigate will still be there not moveing

(but you can select it or so.. :))

btw - if a transport is coming, but the starport is destroyed meanwhile,

the frigate will unload its stuff - may be that could be changed

[short cuts, placing buildings]

well, middle mouse butten is probably more than i wanted .. :)

i mean i would be happy if you just bind the "p"-key to the effect which happens if a building is ready to be placed and you

klick on the icon in the construction window

[MuLLeT MaN]

Sent some emails to your hotmail address, Tony! :)

[MuLLeT MaN]

I think I found a bug.

If a Deathhand flys off the game map, the game will crash...

[Pushes the R key to repair this ludicrous bug!]

[TheGouldFish]

Here is a quick version of the bar for 800x600..

Cool addtion of the spice idicator, I love it..

Oh, and a little thing: in DuneII if you covered all the way round your repar facility with walls the caryalls would pick up a damadged unit from battle, get it fixed and then put them back from where they got it. I tried it and the cayall would not pick up my damaged units. What made it worse was the fact that I could not distroy my own walls.

Thanks for the update Dude.

PS: Sorry for any spelling mistakes.[attachment archived by Gobalopper]

[TheGouldFish]

While I remember,

The pic of a Rocket trooper is a sadukar, which is wrong...

Does your engine surport the animated building of the starport and the refinary, when something is about to arrived, or hwn something is complete at the heavy facotry (the tank moving out and the green light)??

[MuLLeT MaN]

Yup, the picture of the Rocket Trooper should be a trooper pic, not Sardaukar.

ALSO, Add a Repair button. It will save the slowness of some folks thinking that the ability to repair buildings isn't there....

[TonyD]

I've posted a bug-fixed version now.

MuLLeT MaN: Are you sure the death hand will crash the game? I tried launching many missles off the map, and could not get it to crash. Perhaps one the other bugs occured at the same time?

TheGouldFish: The starport and factories don't support the exiting unit type images yet, I would have to do a few changes, but its definately possible for me to do. No promises yet.