DUNE Tribes Game

[Tezcatlipoca]

Currently, the server that is up most frequently is named "Tupile" if that isn't there, "C.H.O.A.M." may be up. If you don't find any up, just pm/email me and I'll see about getting one up for you.

Usefull links:

-----------Basic game stuff: You need--------------

Tutorial - The Tutorial I wrote for anyone new to this. It'll get you started even if you know very little about computers. Complete step by step guide with getting set up with tribes, and then with the Dune mod.

Tribes Download - The full game download. I've two links on this page: one for the game download, another for the patch you'll need. There's also a link to the tutorial but.. you can ignore that if you don't want to view it.

Dune Clientpack - Download for the clientpack for the mod. Technically, it is *not* required to play, but makes things prettier, and gives some extra functionality to the mod.

--------Map stuff: Good for players to have---------

DOX Mappack - A mappack put out by a third party. I use some of the buildings in it for some of the maps I make. Most of the ones that are played don't use it, but it's still nice to have in case we do play one that uses the buildings in it.

Dune Mappack1 - The first mappack for the Dune mod. Not required, since most of the games played are played on maps that require no download, but still fun to have.

Dune NightAttack Campaign - The maps required to play the Night Attack four map campaign I created.

--------Server hosting stuff: Players don't need this, but people that want to host, do--------

Server Source - The code required to set up a Dune server. Contact me and I'll help you with this if you're interested.

--------Additional informational stuff---------

Dune main website - Where most of the information can be found, even if it is a bit scattered.

Dune ScreenShots - A collection of all the screenshots we've got online

Dune Movies - A collection of the movies we've made of the game. The first one sucks, the second one is awsome, and the third one you might recognize...

Root of the main site - The rest of my site, with other non-dune related stuff. You probably don't want to look at this, except for the crappy forum where we discuss Dune-mod related information, and of course the monthly news updates on the main page.

--------Original post---------

Just thought i would invite anyone that has/plays Starsiege:Tribes to check out the DUNE mod that I am currently working on. It is pretty fleshed out, but still is in beta with some areas needing completion and a few bugs to work out.

Check out the indevelopment website at

http://www.jmods.bravepages.com  (click on the DUNE Mod link on the page).

[Terror]

it sounds cool, but do you have any screenshots? havn't seen one so far

[Tezcatlipoca]

Hrm. No, i havent taken any screenshots yet. Its not really grafically/visually intensive for the most part. Being i've kept it Serverside (so anyone with tribes can log on without downloading stuff) it doesnt have any buildings/objects/textures that arnt found in your standard tribes package.

But what ive done is focused on content instead of visual splendure. Sometime soon im going to update the website to list the contents of the mod and a better "how to play" section to go with it.

Basically, its the experience that is great, not so much the normal tribesy visuals (although i admit i have tried to a degree to shape the visuals more into the dune universe).

But i can give you a few content descriptions if your interested. All the equipment and armors are spread over 6 different interchangeable team factions-House Atreides, House Harkonnen, House Corrino, Ix, Bene Tleilaxu, and Minor House(which represents any other house that wants to get involved that would have a military presence):

-there are 5 different melee weapons; Knife, Kindjal, Slip-tip, Crysknife, and Saber

-You can block, disarm, throw and of course attack with the melee weapons. I may put in a "tackle" system to further the melee experience.

-There are 8 different armors; Soldier, Trooper, Fremen, Fedaykin, Sarkaduar, Bashar, Burseg, and Face Dancer.

-there are varius different projectile weapons, most/all expensive, archaic, and manytimes useless given the availability of the shields in the Dune universe, and seen mostly just as support weapons; i.e. one per squad to take care of anyone foolish enough to take down their shield.

-There are 5 Lasguns; cutteray, small handheld lasgun, long range rifle lasgun, the deadly heavy lasgun, and the devistating deployable lasgun emplacement. All lasguns are ranged (i.e. they do decreasing damage as the distance increases)

-I just recently put in the ability for Fremen/Fedaykin to hide under the sand for ambushing purposes.

-There are Pentashields, hunterseekers, plasteel walls, and other deployables

-There are/will be 4(5) different Ornithopters: Spotter, Vulcan thopter, lasgun thopter, carryall(will be able to carry troops or groundcars), (and soon/possibly artillary thopter{drops highexplosive bombs})

-There are/will be 3 different groundcars: Roller(scout), Tracker(artillary), and crawler(Apc).

-The Bene Tleilaxu have the ability to raise Ghola AIs and have a lengthly list of available commands to give them including formations, and 3-5 agressiveness levels.

-There ARE SandWorms. They are big (relative to the players. they really are just little worms for the universe) fast, hungry, and very territorial. They hunt, prioritize their targets, and attack on their own. You can see them comming by the sand disruptions, and eventually by the static discharge

Thats just kinda a brief overview. Like i said, its not really a visually intensive mod (yes you CAN see the sandworms and see them attack though) but a really great experience. Ive been building it, and i still get excited when playing it against other poeple :).

If you want, I can still post some SS of certain things. Anything in particular you wanna see?

[Terror]

is all this stuff standard in Tribes? it sounds pretty good. Like those ghola's and stuff.

Is it also a desert map? And do the bases look like dune bases?

[Tezcatlipoca]

Most of that stuff isn't in standard tribes, but the shapes used for them are. Infact.. there are only a couple that were basically something very similar in tribes, and that i changed the name of to be for the mod.

Ya the ghola's took quite a while. AIs are normally a bitch anyway and the using the T1 engine for it which has minimal if any documentation, and almost NO engine calls for ais was annoying but... ya.. sorry.. the gholas are pretty cool :)

Right now there are only 4 missions, all of which were converted tribes missions. 3 are desert ones, 1 of which is desert highlands, so its mostly rock and no worms, and the fourth is an offworld on. I plan to use all/most of the tribes terrain types and have lots of offworld missions, but half or more of them will be desert, and based on arrakis.

One of the aims when i start making specific missions for it, and anyone else i have help make missions, will be to stear as far as we can from the "Tribesy" boards. When i first thought of making it, i was kinda suprised to think how close the Tribes world and the Dune world corralate, and especially where the missions/terrains are concerned, so for the most part, even if they are kinda tribesy, they will work real well anyway. Just the fact that any mission for the Dune mod has to be adjusted so you can walk to every location that should be accessable (in normal tribes of course everyone has jetpacks, but in Dune, you dont have jetpacks, and only certain houses/armors can get suspensor packs, which act like a really restricted tribes jetpack) really effectivly turns it away from the "tribesy" look and more towards a unique look for the dune mod.

Soon, just to see how far i can go with making it look like dune, im going to make a clientside mission (which means anyone that wants to play it will have to download it from the site) that will be real hardcore Dune style: flat open desert, rock spires, a few rock platues with bases on them, ect. If you check the forums on the site, you can probably get an idea of some other maps we were brainstorming for it.

[Tezcatlipoca]

For the most part, the code is done for this mod. There are still numerous tweeks to be done however, and some non-threatening additions; all things that will be weeded out by playing with the other players. More maps of course need to be made as well.

For anyone interested, i DID load up 10+ Screenshots tonight. Check them out via the link at http://www.jmods.bravepages.com/DUNE.html

[Vanguard3000]

Jesus joined House Atreides? They already have a messiah!

Anyway, it looks good. I like the nighttime levels, with the red sunset.

[Tezcatlipoca]

Jesus joined House Atreides?

Ya "Jesus" is my Tribes online name. Very old "joke" if you will, but more of an extensive statistical experiment. Interesting to see how people react to it.

They already have a messiah!

Don't be decieved :P. Whenever i play, i try to make sure i'm on the House Corrino team, and if not HC, then House Harkonnen (who have limited Sardaukar options). I find the Sardaukar much more favorable then those pathetic fremen dogs :P.

Anyway, it looks good. I like the nighttime levels, with the red sunset.

Thanks. That particular mission actually has a supply ship that arrives and dumps off funds for whoever controls that spaceport at the time. I initially was going to throw up comments on each screen shot to explain what was there, but never got around to it. If anyone is interested, or on the verge of finding out more about it (needing only a little more incentive) I can still post some more comments here.

Future plans for the mod include getting a few more maps pumped out, then throwing it up for download and hosting by others. Then hopefully i can port it over to Tribes 2, which has a much better physics engine, and over all probably will have more flexible options to make the mod better. A tribes 2 version will also come with custom cut models ;), which means sandworms will be a lot better looking (and potentially much bigger).

[Vanguard3000]

Neat. I only have Tribes 2, so I can't wait until you port it. :)

Do you have any custom skins for the characters? It would be neat to see House uniform type things.

[Tezcatlipoca]

Not right now. i just use the default skins (so no one has to download new ones): blue for harkonnen, green for atreidies, a golden-lion theme for corrino, red for Bene Tleilaxu, silver for Ix, and i think silver for the minor house. They worked out pretty well. If/when its ported to T2, then chances are there will be custom skins, as it will have custom shapes/skins.

[Jack Leaf]

About the colors...

I understand, that the mod is based on the Dune books, not the Dune games, but in my opinion red to Harkonnen would be better.

Blood is red. :)

Sounds very good, tough!

By the way, is there any servers running this mod? :P

[Tezcatlipoca]

Yep. The mod is still in dev (mostly map building left now thought) but i host it just about every day until about 10pm eastern at night (goes on at about noon some days and not till 6 others).

However.. it hasnt been up for the last week and a half, and may be a few days still. Lost my connection and the cable company has decided not to hook it up until they are good and ready to.. dispite multiple appointments *they* set, and did not meet.

[Vanguard3000]

I disagree with Jack. I think the colours should portray the colours from the book.

Red may look like blood, but in heraldry, it represents honour, so there's no real point in basing the colours on any attribute of any of the factions.

[Jack Leaf]

Well... Yeah... Forgot that Atreides' eagle logo in the books is red.

Oh yeah, Tezcatlipoca said that IX soldiers (or whatever they are in the mod) are grey. I agree with this, but they would use too the Diamond sword -skin, it looks so high tec. ;)

Erm... And sorry, I'm bit dump :P

[Tezcatlipoca]

Well, connection has been restored after two weeks of downtime, so the server will be hosted regularly again.

Same place; servername "House Corrino", mod "base DUNE", and all maps start with DUNE_* if you want to do a search by mission.

Ya, just checked and i did set the Ix's skin to the dsword. Thought i had put it on base because the dsword looked too "tribesy" but then i remembered i wanted it different from the minor houses.

[Jack Leaf]

Aah great, finaly I can test the mod...

Keep up the good work, tough.

[Jack Leaf]

.... If I play correct time...

[Andrew]

I recently acquired Tribes, and firstly got the Dune mod. (That's the whole reason for acquiring it) I havn't played it much, and still don't understand the whole concept of tribes. (other than you are to kill enemy, etc.)

[Tezcatlipoca]

Hey my thead was posted on! :D

Well, if you have any general questions you think the users of this board could benifit from (propaganda about the mod and making other people want to play it for example), post it here and i can answer them.

If you have any general questions/suggestions that current players and users of the mod may benifit from, I'd advise posting on the forum for the Mod on the website.

If you have any specific questions that you don't think anyone will benifit from, or are too embarressed to ask around other people, just send me a PM or an email.

Either way, if you have any questions, by all means ask away and i'll be glad to answer them.

[Andrew]

Ok, well I am just learning the basics, One big questions is how do I use the turrets in the dune map? (or in general)

[Tezcatlipoca]

Well, in "normal" tribes (i.e. BASE tribes and other tribes mods) you would normally control any turret by going to a "command station" (the little station's without any "arms"). Once in it, it will display a command screen, just like if you pressed "c" (or whatever your command screen button is set to). But since you're at the command station, you can then click on the "turrets" tab in the upper right hand corner (second tab from the left hand side), then double click on one of the listed turrets that have the green icon next to them (indicating they arn't significantly damaged). It will then place you in the turret where you can control them (as long as it is also powered. If not, it will let you know).

In Dune mod, (all maps in it) it works the exact same way for most turrets. I believe the only ones it doesn't work on, are the deployable turrets-i.e. the turrets that the Ix team recieve. Additionally, if you walk into a turret in the Dune mod, it will again place you in command of the turret. To get out of this mode, just press "c" twice.

[Jack Leaf]

This happened just before...

Okay, I joined the server, and then other player connected (named gamer). I was like "Whoohoo! Player" and said "hi". He didn't answer. The map was Dune_Annihilator and I was in the middle. I forgot to tell him that laser rirfles have range, and he shooted me with lazgun. I said him that if laser impacts shield, it makes nuclear explosion. No answer. Well, I took a risk, put shield on and rushed to his base. He was still shooting me. Then I killed him with saber, and guess what.

gamer: CHETER

gamer dropped.

Hmm. Maybe this mod is too complicated or you don't tell well enough about the shield?

[Tezcatlipoca]

Heheh. Yes, that's a frequent occurence in that mod. The problem really isn't with the mod, it's with the stupidity of people such as "gamer." After all,when they enter the game they told explicitly that this is *not* normal tribes, and it *isn't* easy to learn. They are also told that the basic help can be found in the tab menu (where the basic effects of the shield are listed, as well as lasgun information in their individual subcatagories). Additionally, (something that few people that play the game regularly, let alone people that randomly join) extensive help and information is given on the website.

Technically, the mod really is made for those who like Dune. I knew when I started it (and the theory has been confirmed over time) that normal tribes players are *not* going to either understand, be able to play, or like playing it, unless they too have had exposure to Dune. Additionally, Tribes has degraded to a point where most mods are just "kill kill kill." Dune isn't like that. You really need to think in order to beat your opponent, and you need to work with your team in order to beat the others. Everything has a counter to it. "Wheels within wheels" so to speak ;).

But yes, the specific sect of people such as "gamer" run rampant now. They think they're the sh*t and that they don't need to listen to anyone. They then proclaim that the mod is a variety of derogitory terms that it couldn't possibly be besides the fact that it can't be personified the way they are attempting to personify it, all because either they don't understand it, because they are really crappy at it, because they don't listen, because they are stupid, or two or more of those choices :). The mod just isn't for everyone, and wasn't intended to be. All you can to is try and try again with new people.

When/if the player base increases, it will attract a larger amount of new players, where in most of those will again leave. But with any luck, a few new people will stick around and add that much more to the gameplay.

I've been doing this for a while, and the mods I've made tend to go this way. So as a last word, do not be discouraged! If you stick around, a few regulars will see you're on and come join you. Sooner then you think, you'll have a pretty good 2v2 or 3v3 game going on. And if i see someone on and i don't have anything else that needs to be done, i'll probably come on and bust a few heads myself and make sure everyone's enjoying themselves. :)

[Andrew]

Interesting. Maybe I have not done something right.

Will have to set up on online game to teach us how to play it properly.(as I have not seen these weapons labelled as such in the mod.)

[Tezcatlipoca]

What name do you use Andrew? I'll attempt to connect if I see you log on, and I haven't anything else I'm doing. Show you the ropes so to speak. Until that time, and you still want to get into it a bit, and no one else is connected/connecting, I'd highly advise reading through the webpage (the part specific to the dune mod). Most you can just scan as I'm sure you know the setting, but the indepth strat guide should help a lot. Hell, I look at it occasionally myself, and I wrote it!