Smuggler MOD

[Falconius]

i'm still trying to get DuneEx2 to work :'(, so i've only got the basic concepts so far. Thought i'd mention it here to get some oppinions since it always always goes faster when you know exactly what you want to do.

Alternate Dune story line:

After the Atreides defeat at the hands of combined Harkonnen and Sardukar forces, Gurney Halleck lead the battered surviving forces deep into the desert where they join the spice-smugglers. There are alot of fighting between different smuggler groups, so the experienced Atreides Soldier faction rapidly rise to a position where they control some of the most lucrative opperations. However, apart from the usual Harkonnen Deep Skirmish forces and the inexplicably more dangerous Fremen raidings, they find themselves to be increasingly facing combined groups of other smuggling factions who used to be bitter enemies. Then one day they are able to capture a outpost that they thought could only be Harkonnen due to the unusual order and impressive weaponry of the enemy fortification. This is when they first learn of the strange new enemy called the Order of the Smuggling Cartel, also know as Ordos...

Units:

My approach is to try and minimise the number of unit types as much as possible.

Ordos, Atr and HK light infantry will be EXACTLY the same -> all will auto heal to make getting veterancy easier. In veterancy they will start being different.

I want to make bases alot bigger for every 'tech level'. For example: to build mortar infantry you need a standard barrack, a mortar depot and a 'mortar personell living quaters'. So following a sertain tech tree cost more than just money -> it cost alot of building space.

The basic idea is this -> when starting a base you will be able to follow three paths for building a force -> infantry, vehicles AND air. What this means is you are able to build and fight with (example) a air unit only force, without being forced to build a barracks or vehicle factory.

Also important is that infantry alone WILL be a match for the other two types of forces (if used right). Same goes for other types.

Infantry:

The scout will be no more. Instead all your infantry will work like scout. Thus they are vunerable when moving. You'll have 4 types and just one of each: anti infantry, anti-tank/air, long range mortar (anti-base) and house special. The tactic i forsee is to set up a infantry line that you cautiously move forward in the stage. If the enemy send infantry to rush you he will need 3 times your number of infantry to break your line. He will also need to attack in stages or all his force will be smashed in one mortar explosion.

Vehicles:

The vehicle force has a problem at the moment: you need two main types, those that move fast and hit hard, and those that move slowly, DEPLOY (immobile) and become cloaked (cammoflage nets or something) for ambush tactics. Might be tricky to MOD.

Once again (this might be unpopular) all houses will have exactly the same vehicles but each house will have their units tweaked to their prefs. Also each house will have a sertain chasis fitted with their own unique house weapon, exept for the Harkonnen Devastator. This will make alot of sense from the starport perspective, wouldn't it?

i'm not sure how to handle the aircraft yet. i think only the Ordos should have a stealth spyplane though. ;D

Any oppinions are welcome.

[guusr5644]

basic in ur mod your talking about making emperor as starcraft?

[Apollyon]

sounds interesting

If you need any help just ask =).

[Falconius]

Thanks Apollyon -> just can't figure out DuneEx. DLed the newest version like you suggested. Even reinstalled the VB runtime from Emp CD.

Perhaps GoldEagle. But i cannot see how to do Dropships.

[guusr5644]

*trying to remember what drop ship is*... *cant remember what dropship is* ;D

[Apollyon]

I dont think drop ships are possible to make,

the nearest thing is an APC, picked up by and advcarryall.

as for duneex im afraid ive no idea.

[DukeLeto]

Thanks Apollyon -> just can't figure out DuneEx. DLed the newest version like you suggested. Even reinstalled the VB runtime from Emp CD.

Never, ever, ever, ever, ever, EVER open th RFD file from Windows Explorer. Always do it by opening DuneEx and clicking "Open". You will most likely have to download it again now...

[Gobalopper]

There should be a newer version of DuneEx coming out but it won't be called that anymore. Its going to be more of a general game editor with plugins for the various Westwood games.

[Falconius]

What use would it be to download the same file again, DukeLeto?

[Apollyon]

I would imagine he meant re-install.

[Falconius]

While i fugure that out i'm making a list of features.

The units will be few in number so i need them to be more versitile than in regular Emp.

i'm currently considering the house specific infantry unit. No idea what to do with the Atr Officer. But the Hark commando could perhaps use a EITS type heavy armoured vehicle/pod to ride into battle -> discarding it once through the enemy line. Does that sound do-able?

Is it possible to set the Saboteur to survive his blast?

i want to make the saboteur rather usefull for a change.

???

[DukeLeto]

No, I didn't. At leats for me, I had to download it again.

[Apollyon]

you cant make the saboteur survive simply as the string

saboteur = true denotes self destruction.

What you could do is have a unit which uses a very close range explosive weapon as a replacement.

As for the EITS idea im pretty sure that at the current stage in XBF editing that would be required it is impossible.

[Falconius]

Yes, Apollyon -> that solves the Saboteur. a C4 ish solution. (invisible anti building only bullet)

Maybe i'll need to make the default saboteur a harkonnen commando? Do it through rules instead of xbf?

Can someone plz extract my old MOD files and e-mail them to me -> still no luck with DuneEx.

[Apollyon]

Sorry, I would but I'm kinda busy right now :-

[Falconius]

i'm hoping you'd be somewhat less busy now, Apollyon? ::)

Got the rules and art from FED2k Emp downloads but for some reason the strings file wasn't there.

Another pro question -> is there any way to add some unpredictability to the fighting by making weapons less accurate? It seems boring that all fighting boils down to exact math.

[Apollyon]

well, yes of course.

make all bullets non-conceptual. IMO it makes the game much better and more satisfying when you see a hail of bullets approaching your enemy =).

[Apollyon]

[attachment archived by Gobalopper]

[Falconius]

If you ever need someone to do sounds for you -> i could help (got the gear).

[Apollyon]

I tried to import sounds into the game before but i couldnt get it to work :-

[Falconius]

There are 3 people who might know -> Edric O, Jacob Douds and the chap who made the minimod (can't remember name). He knew how to make new xbf's long before we had any clues about it -> just had a look: Malcolm Lim and that was 16 Sept 01...

Going through my planning sheet i realised that some major changes would be needed to the subhouses. The reason is that the game will represent pre-imperial forces with the Atreides barely recovering from a near mortal defeat, the Ordos are just a little more than a rumour and the Harkonnen doesn't deploy huge armies against the fairly covert smugglers -> they have bigger Fremen problems all over the planet. i was thinking of replacing them with the following:

IX replaced with Advanced Harvesting Systems

Fremen -> Advanced Power Systems

Guild -> Build Veteran Units

Sardukar -> Advanced Base Defence Turrets

Tleilak -> Advanced Surveilance Systems

The last two options will be power intensive -> choosing both will require alot of buildingspace. i think most people will always choose the first option since the spice will flow almost 2x faster. Being able to build veterans will also be good, but they will be expensive -> they will be hard to stop without veterans of your own. The surveilance option will give you a outpost that open the fog very far around your base -> also decloaking enemy Saboteurs (they will be set to hideunitonradar though).

Any thoughts/opinions?

[Apollyon]

I was able to import the sounds and put them in the right directory but they just wouldnt play in-game if I designated them to.

[Falconius]

i was hoping to make my mod by adding new units and weapons and leave the original units/buildings/weapons intact but disabled but there is this one new unit i've mad that i had to do with existing stuff ->

It seems that there is some strange link between the OREITS and the Saboteur. In my version i have the EITS with circles = true and using the Ordos flying mine xaf. The unit is called Harkonnen commando pod and all i could do was to change all entries under [ORSaboteur] rules and art to make it the Hark commando. Has anyone done this type of thing before? i'm very curious to know if anyone has ever tried to add the saboteur parachute graphic to another xaf. It seems possible that one might need to use the saboteur xaf and add the mesh of another unit (example: sniper) to replace the basic saboteur meshes. There are probably lines of code in xafs calling for specific actions like idle-action, deploy-action and undeploy-action. From what i've seen so far a unit will freeze up if it cannot find xaf entries for deploying/undeploying.

[Apollyon]

Its not possible currently as youd need to add weapon-firing data as well as the mesh.