EAB/Lemon Super League 2011: Round 1 - Dune II

[john4p]

Originally Posted by mihcael

Very Nice!

You haven't played DuneII much before have you?

Thanks. Never played it before (played C&C3 excessively though). Put several of your hints to good use - ignoring a lot of stuff in order to save time...

Originally Posted by daxb

If you paly harkonnen and fire rockets you should save before and reload if necessary.

Well, that's cheating. We have to play from start to end of the mission without saving.

[Lonewolf10]

I had another go today. I now know what all the buildings that the Harkonnens use, and which are the ones to build and the ones to avoid. Another 4 hour battle later, no spice left and no money, so my buildings and vehicles were eventually destroyed by the sandstorms of Dune. (ok, I thought it sounded better than saying I gave up, as there was no point in carrying on)

BTW, I see Westwood Studios didn't bother upgrading the AI for the Command & Conquer games. The harvesters still sit doing nothing after exiting the refinery under certain conditions - I find it annoying in this, but even worse that they didn't fix it for any of the C&C games.


Regards,
Lonewolf10

[capehorn]

I'm glad that the people who wanted this are getting to play a more esoteric game in competition. Eventually we are going to run low on quality 'shoot as much as you can' or 'complete a race fast as you can' games so it's nice to have variety.

But I'm not going to play this. The controls are just too frustrating for me to get used to, and there is absolutely no learning curve by playing such an advanced level.

It did remind me of how much I loved Warcraft II back in the day. Maybe I'll play that a bit.

[mihcael]

Originally Posted by capehorn

...
But I'm not going to play this. The controls are just too frustrating for me to get used to, and there is absolutely no learning curve by playing such an advanced level....

Im not sure if this will help (or you be already aware), but you can give commands by pressing the Keyboard. A to Attack, M to Move and so on. Saves a little bit of mouse work.

[john4p]

Originally Posted by mihcael

Im not sure if this will help (or you be already aware), but you can give commands by pressing the Keyboard. A to Attack, M to Move and so on. Saves a little bit of mouse work.

In WinUAE I remapped H (harvest) to S (spice) and M (move) to D (destination) so I could comfortably rest my left hand on A, S, D.

[mihcael]

Originally Posted by john4p

In WinUAE I remapped H (harvest) to S (spice) and M (move) to D (destination) so I could comfortably rest my left hand on A, S, D.

No for comp, just curios... Does winuae allow you to create macros so you could configure, for example the middle mouse button to do a "left button+A" so you can just click once on a unit and then select the unit to attack?

[john4p]

I don't think so, but you can map for example M to the middle mousebutton and A to the right one (rightclick once and then leftclick to attack or middleclick once and then leftclick to move)...

With an external tool (something like JoyToKey) you surely can use such macros though.

[Lonewolf10]

Originally Posted by capehorn

But I'm not going to play this. The controls are just too frustrating for me to get used to, and there is absolutely no learning curve by playing such an advanced level.

Theres plenty of time to play the first few levels to help get the hang of things. That is what I did.
Plus, for extra info, just click on your mentors name at the top of the screen (e.g. "Mentat" for Harkonnen's) and he will give you valuable info.


FYI: I found a couple of curious bugs/glitches yesterday.

1) You can tell your own vehicles/troops to attack your own vehicles and buildings!

2) For some bizarre reason, I was able to repair an enemy building!


Regards,
Lonewolf10

[mihcael]

Originally Posted by Lonewolf10

...
FYI: I found a couple of curious bugs/glitches yesterday.

1) You can tell your own vehicles/troops to attack your own vehicles and buildings!

2) For some bizarre reason, I was able to repair an enemy building!
...

1. Feature? If your units get turned green by Deviator, you can shoot them to turn them back to blue/red.

2. It is possible to take control of enemy buildings by moving a soldier into them when power gets down to red. Otherwise i have seen this with turrets that are rebuilt sometimes but why would you want to repair them

[daxb]

There are some more known bugs ("You can tell your own vehicles/troops to attack your own vehicles and buildings!" is no bug). There exists (Aminet?) a replacement for BUILD.EMC file that fixes:
- Trivial structure damage no more (does not affect caused by low-power);
- Rocket-turret range decreased so launcher destroys it from any angle;
- Repair facility always brings units back to battlefield.

I makes the game more smooth/fun, easier. I would recommend the fix.

About the save-cheat I mentioned it was only an example (there are a lot more). Someone may thing thats no cheating like "accidently" destroy your own harvester.

I don`t recommend to play the WHDLoad version on at least 680x0 because it is much slower then playing the normal install.

[mailman]

122

[Lonewolf10]

Originally Posted by mihcael

1. Feature? If your units get turned green by Deviator, you can shoot them to turn them back to blue/red.

They did not change colour. Try it when you next play it right at the start of the game, select a unit and tell it to attack your own building or another unit.

Originally Posted by daxb

There are some more known bugs ("You can tell your own vehicles/troops to attack your own vehicles and buildings!" is no bug). There exists (Aminet?) a replacement for BUILD.EMC file that fixes:
- Trivial structure damage no more (does not affect caused by low-power);
- Rocket-turret range decreased so launcher destroys it from any angle;
- Repair facility always brings units back to battlefield.

I makes the game more smooth/fun, easier. I would recommend the fix.

I was unaware of the fix, but we are supposed to be using the files linked in this thread, to make things fair.

Originally Posted by daxb

About the save-cheat I mentioned it was only an example (there are a lot more). Someone may thing thats no cheating like "accidently" destroy your own harvester.

Don't mention harvesters - I lost 3 (yes, 3!) to a Sandworm when I played it today. Thankfully the coders were generous and each time I lost a harvester it was replaced via a Carryall - I doubt they are so generous when other units get eaten. I only had one harvester at the time they were eaten, not sure if that was a factor in their generosity. I usually have 2 or 3 on the go.

The only good thing to come out of todays game, was that I found out where one of the Palaces is. Now just to find the other one and destroy'em both


Regards,
Lonewolf10

[mihcael]

Originally Posted by Lonewolf10

...
Don't mention harvesters - I lost 3 (yes, 3!) to a Sandworm when I played it today. Thankfully the coders were generous and each time I lost a harvester it was replaced via a Carryall - I doubt they are so generous when other units get eaten. I only had one harvester at the time they were eaten, not sure if that was a factor in their generosity. I usually have 2 or 3 on the go....

You can kill the sandworm! when you see it, remove all your harvesters (and other units) from the sand, then line a few tanks up on the edge of the rock and attack it. It is semi hidden, but if you click around a bit you should be able to find it.

I normally have 6-7 Harvesters going. The spice does run out quite quickly though.

[Biscuit]

Originally Posted by Lonewolf10

They did not change colour. Try it when you next play it right at the start of the game, select a unit and tell it to attack your own building or another unit.

Friendly fire. The ultimate in realistic battlefield gameplay.

[mailman]

Originally Posted by Lonewolf10

They did not change colour. Try it when you next play it right at the start of the game, select a unit and tell it to attack your own building or another unit.

This is a realistic approach. I don't see anything buggy in it. It can be useful when you have blocked your way someway since the buildings can not be demolished.

Originally Posted by daxb

There are some more known bugs ("You can tell your own vehicles/troops to attack your own vehicles and buildings!" is no bug). There exists (Aminet?) a replacement for BUILD.EMC file that fixes:
- Trivial structure damage no more (does not affect caused by low-power);
- Rocket-turret range decreased so launcher destroys it from any angle;
- Repair facility always brings units back to battlefield.

I am not sure but I think that the last one can be done without any cheats. Just surround the repair facility with a wall and have at least one carry-all unit. It will deliver damaged unit and put it back when repaired.

[mihcael]

You are correct mailman.

Originally Posted by daxb

...
- Trivial structure damage no more (does not affect caused by low-power);
- Rocket-turret range decreased so launcher destroys it from any angle;
- Repair facility always brings units back to battlefield.
...

No bugs there!

1. Its not trivial, its a harsh environment. And more realistic.
2. It would make it too easy if you just rolled up willy-nilly to a turret with a bunch of rocket launchers and took it out with no thought.
3. Might be helpful, currently you get the option.

Other bugs??
- Controlling deviated units after they are returned to enemy control. Could be considered a form of subversion?
- Harvesters paying out. A chemical reaction perhaps?
- Starport prices and avaiability? Market conditions.
- Unlimited freemen numbers...
- Enemy units shooting their own buildings when between the target.
- Rocket Launchers shoot wildly at short range.

[daxb]

Seems that Dune2 is a goo example of people thinking what is a cheat/bug/feature or not. My opinion is that "Trivial structure damage no more" fix saves your finger/mouse-button/patience for accident. It`s boring to click ten times on the same building = no fun. The reason maybe is that I played the game too much.

Btw. someone notice a bug where a land-unit is "flying" on the map? Has something to do with give commands "at the same time" a Carryall tries to pic-up a unit.

Or:

If you move a unit on a field destroyed by saboteur you cannot choose it again (lost for ever).

[mailman]

Originally Posted by daxb

If you move a unit on a field destroyed by saboteur you cannot choose it again (lost for ever).

I have never encountered anything like this and in the old times I played Dune 2 a lot.

[mihcael]

Originally Posted by daxb

...
Btw. someone notice a bug where a land-unit is "flying" on the map? Has something to do with give commands "at the same time" a Carryall tries to pic-up a unit.

Or:

If you move a unit on a field destroyed by saboteur you cannot choose it again (lost for ever).

I have never seen those bugs before either.

[Anakirob]

Originally Posted by daxb

I don`t recommend to play the WHDLoad version on at least 680x0 because it is much slower then playing the normal install.

Yeah, I noticed that Slowest using the standard HD install is faster than fastest using WHDLoad on my 030 equipped 1200.