Dune Mod

[ForceUser]

Ok, I'm planning on doing a dune mod and would really apreciate any help/answers/advice anybody can give me. I'll put all my questions on stuff I can't find (Either because it's too deeply buried in the forum or because I'm lazy ) Some of these things I *think* I know but would apreciate confermation.

For starters I'd like to know the following:

1. The 5 different type of attacks that can be made by one unit: Indirect, air, etc. Do they affect certain movement types like wheel/track/crawler? If they do what attacs affect what movement types exactly?

2. What exactly is the bonus given to a hidden unit in combat? 10%? 20%? to accuracy? attack? or is it a fixed number?

3. I've got a rough idea of what most movement type's specials are (Like air can move over anny terrain and crawlers can shoot space ships) but what of those can't I change? I know most of them you can so the list of those you can't is probably shorter

4. Can I change planet names? This will be a rather biggy since if I can't, I might have to build the house HW's on other planets and rename them and let the rebels (the only group I don't have a corresponding group in the Dune uni for) take over the original HW.

5. Can any of the resources be renamed? Like monopols to Spice Discs for example

6. Can I make unit triangles? unit a dibanding into unit b disbanding into unit c disbanding into unit a. (I prolly can't but just thought I'd ask

7. That rotating 3D pics of artilary/tanks/ships/etc. what format are they? can I render new ones (in 256 colour ofcourse) and replace/add some of them?

8. Can the terrain graphics be fiddles with? or are they hardcoded?

9. Can the unit graphics be edited/added to? or the city graphics? can I add more cities? can I change the buildable ones?

10. Can I change the house colours or the sequence they play in? make blue play first?

11. Can I change the houses' banners/Portraits?

Anyways, I'm going through the hacking files so some of these things I might figuere out or read but confermation is always a good thing

Also, here is some of the framework too. Any ideas/advice would be apreciated! I'm also starting a credits file so any help I get from someone, goes into the credits file Both grim and matt is already in it

Blue - Artreides
Red - Harkonnen
Green - Ordos
Yellow - Fremen
Purple - Sardukar
Traders - Spice Guild
Church - Imperial Emperor
Vau - Ix
Simbionts - Thailaxu
Rebels - Rebels (Still stuck with this one, although, every regime no matter HOW big has it's rebels

I've got alot of units already for the houses but that will come in another update when I finish thier stats.

Thanx again!!

ForceUser

[ForceUser]

ok, I've done the Atreides first draft on thier units and house background etc. and done the ranges. I got some nice screens from the game for banners and prtraits and even a nice intro screen!
http://www.groep7.co.za/dune/atreides.zip This is just the word file with the atreides info.

Only one problem.. I can't seem to find the right palette Every time I export the damn thing it looks bad. Even PCX files. I've got some screenies and they look yuky...

I use corel draw, witch is really decent as it can export into pxc format. I just think that EFS uses a different palette when reading the pic.

I've used just about every palette and the only one that gets close is standard VGA but even that looks bad.

Anybody know anything about palets?

ForceUser

[ForceUser]

I want to curl up into a ball and die...

I've done so much on this mod already and was fealing good about it and then read Matt's thread on his hyperion mod and almost had a heart attack... The YEARS of work scared me shitless. Then I looked at the dat files and almost pissed myself...

But, Even though it aint gonna be the best mod, I guess I could do alright.

ok, done with rambling, now for an update!

Graphics
1. Figured the palette thingy out, but the palette I created is a bit faulty so the pics look just a whee bit out of whack.
2. Got a nice intro and almost all the houses's banners. I also have 3 "advisors" or Mentats as I call them.
3. Still having trouble getting .bin files into .bmp files.

Dat Files
1. Completed with the Structures list and added about 9 new buildings and changed 5 or so buildings' names. Can't for the life of me figure out how to utilise them in the map editor but they arn't buidable by the engineer.
2. Worked on the Production file by changing the names of the the stuff to the corresponding resources. Still same values as original EFS
3. Completed the resources file by renaming some of the resources and adding new description to them.

Galaxy
1. Loaded the map editor (Original one) and found you COULD change them planets' names and the game doesn't crash, atleast not on historical.
2. Added LOADS of date on the houses, units, etc

Units (Not in Dat yet)
1. Completed with the Areides Units (Stats/bacground too but havn't put them into the dat file.
2. Givven each house 4 foot,2 air and 1 Tank unit that only they can build at THIER complex. Thinking of putting 2 of them under rebel control at the start so you have to fight for them. Also, You can't build them. These are the 9 new buildings I added.

Ok, so it's going good. If ANYBODY want's to help PLEASE send me an email!! user.force@gmail.com

ForceUser

[Grimly]

it's good to see someone attack EFS with that kind of energy!

[ForceUser]

Well, I've got alot of energy yes, it's just gonna be tough charging Mod Hill alone

[Deathifier]

ForceUser: Some quickish answers to some questions.

1. Certain attacks will hit certain units, there's a table that outlines them in one of the dat files.

2. +3 agility

3. As far as I know crawler units are the only movement class that will open fire on bombarding starships. The naval class has issues related to being bombarded, and is also the only class that lets you unload onto land without a city.

4. Yes you can change them however unless you have specific named planets there (house homeworlds, B2, league, church, etc) then random galaxy will not work.

5. Yes

6. Probably, however disbanding is free and always generates a certain amount of refund material. So if you make a triangle people will disband around it to generate free resources.

7. Yes, it's FLC format and Matt or someone else has a guide on assembling them.

8. Probably, there'll be a file containing all the terrain hexes and overlays somewhere.

9. If it's graphical, there's a good chance you can change it. You can *rename* buildings, and you can add one or two but add too many and it becomes impossible to build them as the interface isn't very flexible.

10. No, this is fixed.

11. Yes

As for your graphics palette there's a post here somewhere from a person that figured it out.
Or you can use the EFS Editors that were created by several people here, try this thread:
http://www.kborek.cz/forum/NonCGI/ultimatebb.php?ubb=get_topic;f=1;t=000077#000004

All the best,
Deathifier

[ForceUser]

Wow, thanx! I finally sorted out the graphics problem thanx!! And thanx for all the other info!!

ForceUser

[ForceUser]

progress is slow due to me finally getting my study material. I'm also planning on releasing the Dune Mod in "stages" the first beta will basically be just graphics and eye candy. Almost all the pcx pics are new plus house names and emblems will be different. Also some editing of the string.res and a few of the data files. No gameplay stuff yet. Think of it as a "skin"

I'm planning on releasing it some time this week, probably friday or saterday. I'll include a full readme with all the files I changed and a few credits.

ForceUser

[ForceUser]

done, you can dl it here: http://www.groep7.co.za/stars/zips/DM-EFS.zip

it is a 800kb file.

ForceUser

[Kosh2]

I've downloaded it
It looks quite promising, nice work, congratulations
But I have a doubt why Sardukar and Empeor are different factions? IMHO Sardaukar should be the same faction than Corrino House (Emperor),
Perhaps Bene Geserith should be Church?

[ForceUser]

hmm.. the Bene Geserith is more a faction that works in the shadows.. not sending out inquisitors out and have a big fleet and stuf... but yea, the emperor and the Sardukar are technically the same house... It's difficult. Although the other houses fit in nicely. Tailaxu being the Simbiots and Ix being the vay and stuff like that. It could be easy to say that the Sardukar's homeworld (A prison planet) rebelled against the corino house.

Anyways, thanx for the input!

[Kosh2]

hmm.. the Bene Geserith is more a faction that works in the shadows..

I agree. But I would like to have Bene Gerserith. And in the last Herbert's book (5th & 6th book) BG have an army.

It could be easy to say that the Sardukar's homeworld (A prison planet) rebelled against the corino house.

It is hard to believe in Sardaukar against the Emperor but well, it's your mod

Other topic (not important): why Areides are Blue? I know in Dune2 game they are blue but I remember in the Herbert's book reading somethig about "the green & black Atreides flag and the Red Falcon" so green could be a better color

[ForceUser]

Ah yes, the color. That's a verry interesting point because, the PC games and the books don't really match.

I havn't read all of the books yet so I'm not quite shure what all the colors are in the books but I do know the games rather well.

In Dune 1 (An RPG/RTS Hybrid) The Atreides were Red and the Harkonnen blue. And there wern't anny Ordos or Sardukar and all the atreides troops were Fremen.

In Dune 2, one of the first and best known true RTS games, The atreides were blue and the Harkonnen red and the Ordos were green. But there were no Ix or tailaxu.

In Dune 2000, The fremen joined the atreides as 1 special unit there were Smugglers that helped the ordos in some missions. You could also build Sardukar if you captured the imperial pallace and a sardukar baraks. Atriedes were still blue, Harkonnen red, Ordos green and the Emperor was purple but not a playable side. The Ix also had a building you could build to get each sides special tank.

In Emperor: Battle for dune, There were still only the 3 primary houses but the house corino was dead completely. The Sardukar were on thier own and swore allegiance to those who helped them. The fremen also helping those who helped them. The Ix and Tailaxu both also now had thier own factory type building. In the last mission the Guild had a HUGE army of wierd tanks and units and even flyers.

So to sum up, I've taken a color, like purple, and decided who bests fits in there from any of these games. And who would best fill the role as church, simbiot and Vau. Also, in PC games, the developers seem to tend to put blue or green as the "good guys" and red as the "bad guys"

That's how I came up with the current config. Also, Since I based the mod on the games, and not the books, the Bene Geserith isn't a major force. They will definately have a few units because they are in each house and "uses" each house for thier own means. So I can easily change the Spy, assasin and Doplleganger to BG units.

On a side note though kosh2, you seem to know quite alot about the whole Dune Uni and esp the books. I know the games in and out. If you have free time, I really need someone to work with me or else this mod might never get done.

Thanx again for all your input!

ForceUser

[Kosh2]

Also, in PC games, the developers seem to tend to put blue or green as the "good guys" and red as the "bad guys"

Because of Cold War reds are the bad guys, perhaps?

Also, Since I based the mod on the games, and not the books, the Bene Geserith isn't a major force. They will definately have a few units because they are in each house and "uses" each house for thier own means. So I can easily change the Spy, assasin and Doplleganger to BG units.

It looks a good idead
Perhaps Inquisitor too (Inquisitor=BG Truth Teller ?)

On a side note though kosh2, you seem to know quite alot about the whole Dune Uni and esp the books. I know the games in and out. If you have free time, I really need someone to work with me or else this mod might never get done

I don't have much free time nowadays but I'll do my best

[Kosh2]

I´ve just checked in the first book

He pointed out the window to the Atreides green and black banner

and

It carried the red Atreides hawk crest above the breast pocket.

And one mistake in my last post: is "Truthsayer" no Tuth teller

I think there is more information about flags in the prelude trilogy written by Herbert son ("House Atreides", "House Arkonnen" & "House Corrino")