1.9.7 Feedback

[tesb]

i have no problem with you using them.
with regards to the textures, i made a new setup where LandBlend.dds and LandGrids.dds is used for every land texture (saves a lot of space, also they are just gray and are just needed for the grid and the alpha layer). the actual texture that shows up is the Xdetails.dds, with x being the particular terrain.

so for the MoM textures to work you need to put the LandBlend.dds and LandGrids.dds as well as the detail textures in the xml path.


with regards heightmaps, they are used by default if they are in the correct folder, afaik you do not need to change anything in any xml for them to work. i should note though that the heightmaps from dune wars will make water disappear as well as peaks, although i am not so sure about the latter.

[davidlallen]

Originally Posted by orlanth

If you don't mind me asking, how did you manage to implement all those multiple Terrains with different elevations (e.g. different Coast and Ocean terrains, and Sink / Salt etc which are non-"water" but still low-elevation?)

Deliverator did a lot of magic to make this work. I spent a few minutes trying to search out the posts where he described it. There is no specific thread for it which means it is sadly buried in the middle of some feedback thread. But, it must be around pages 2-3 of the thread list in the forum, because page 4 is too historical and page 1 is too new.

@ Deliverator, can you point more specifically?

[Ahriman]

Try here and what follows:
http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?p=8464879

[Deliverator]

Originally Posted by Ahriman

Try here and what follows:
http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?p=8464879

That's the post. The significant part is changing fPeakScale, fHillScale and iWaterHeight properties in CIV4TerrainSettings.xml. Put simply, Dune Wars turns hills into Sink elevation (lower than normal land), peaks into Mesa elevation (higher than normal land) and uses features for impassable Peaks.

[Arkan5]

Hi,
I just recently discovered Dune Wars and I'm having great fun with it. It really gets across the Dune atmosphere very well and doesn't have to hide from vanilla Civ in terms of gameplay, so thanks for making it.

A few minor issues I've encountered:
1. The AI sometimes builds outposts on groundwater which makes it a tradeable strategic resource, which doesn't make much sense.
2. It would be nice if the F8 victory screen showed amount of spice and terraformed plots immediately after loading a game and not just after the next turn resolution.
3. My early game Scout Thopters aren't very good at scouting cause they die way too quickly against barbarians (Marathon large map, 7 civs, Monarch). IMO they could use +100% against Arakeen, similar to the vanilla scouts which even get defensive bonus and don't encounter 3 strength, 2 moves units like Waterstealers early on. Even with +100% it would still only be 50/50 against Soldiers and you'd most likely lose against Waterstealers.

[LeBashar]

It seem spies can't enter in ennemy city if we are at war, it's a bug ?

[LeBashar]

I have made some tests, and I think this is a secondary effect of the correction for no-ship. So spies are also affected and can't go into a guarded ennemy city if we are ate war, except if they are already in the city before the war declaration, in this case they can still stay.

It is really an annoying effect for many spies which are useless in this way :/

[Ahriman]

That sounds like a big problem, particularly since several of the espionage missions are really *designed* to be used during wartime (like the Traitor which can plunge the city into anarchy for a turn - reducing its city defenses to zero).

Similarly, there's no reason why Ordos sabotage shouldn't be able to take place during war, or Fremen water raids.

[Deliverator]

Sounds like the No Ship fix might have broken this. I stopped invisible units from being able to enter a city while at war to stop the strange teleporting units behaviour. I should have made an exception for invisible spy units.

[Yamato]

Just downloaded it and am playing my first game and playing around with the editor to explore all the aspects. Very impressive work. It's a great deal of fun and I honestly can't believe the amount of work that went into it.

I do have a couple of questions.
1) How do you harvest pundi rice, Caladan Wine and Sappho?
2) Why do the above all look the same on the map?

I do have one more comment to the builder. How about some more Great Houses? They do mention to other Great Houses in Dune. Moritani and Ginaz. Not a fan of Herbert Jr's work, but there a number of great houses that he created as well. Would be a lot of fun, creating new houses with less of an established history.

[Ahriman]

Thanks Yamato, glad you're enjoying the mod.

1) You build a ..... I'm blanking on the name here.... trade building enabled by Offworld Trade, then a dialog box comes up and you select which offworld good you want. Each product can be selected only once, and some products are only available to particular factions (if they're in the game).

2) Because they never actually appear on the map. After selecting them from the list, a building is created in the city, and that building provides copies of the resource. So the on-map graphic is just a placeholder.

How about some more Great Houses? They do mention to other Great Houses in Dune. Moritani and Ginaz.

Because there is basically no canon lore for any of these other houses, they have no established flavor, so rather than having something with a real connection to the Dune universe we would have to invent something out of the whole cloth.
We also already have an incredibly aggressive/offensive militaristic leader: Rabban.

*edit*
The building I couldn't remember is the "Landing Stage."

[masaykh]

On Warlord difficulty my fremens weaker then other houses.
it can be subjective but can balance be adjusted?

[Ahriman]

Fremen are arguably the strongest faction. Their early growth bonuses and melee unit mobility advantage on deserts are very powerful. I think the mod plays quite differently on regular civ, and it takes a while to get used to the new mechanics.

The suggestions I would make are:
1) Be very careful about placing cities; cities should be further apart than in vanilla Civ4. Good city sites are those with lots of water. Don't build too many cities or you will suffer from maintenance costs. Similarly, make sure to have workers building water-yielding improvements (windtraps are very important - and can't be built on adjacent tiles, so maximize the number you can build).
2) With Fremen, found a religion, either Shai Hulad (for temples and water bonuses) or Mahdi (for lots of mahdi fighters).
3) Don't try to get every tech. Concentrate on just the techs you need. In particular with Fremen, concentrate on techs that give you melee units. Pick a friend to maintain good relations with and trade for other techs.
4) Attack other factions. If you can't take their cities without heavy losses, you can still wreck their economy by pillaging lots of improvements and then retreating to the desert. Early crysknife fights can be very good at this.

Hope this helps.

[masaykh]

so if opponets survive till the tech end i`m doomed?
it is not seems right...but maybe so..

[Ahriman]

Fremen are deliberately weak in the extreme late-game, but can normally dominate from much earlier on. Yes, if you aren't ahead by the time of the end-game techs, you'll probably lose.

[masaykh]

50 turn till game end
i have 45 000 gold and 400 each turn - is it normal?
it is lokk like thee some inbalance in gold income as AI have too little gold even leaders (half population\cities)

something looking wrong

[Ahriman]

it is lokk like thee some inbalance in gold income as AI have too little gold even leaders (half population\cities)

something looking wrong

The AI has very little gold and tech probably because you are playing on Warlord difficulty. On the low difficulties, the AI gets penalties. I like playing Dune Wars on Immortal, I think the mod is quite tough on the highest difficulties.

If you have such a huge economy, I am surprised that you have not accumulated enough power to win the game by meeting one of the victory conditions.

[LeBashar]

I agree with ahriman. For have so mush gold income, you must have built many gold or spice building, wonder etc.
You have probably to much scatter your energy and not pursue only one victory goal. It is easy for new player to make this mistake.

In dunewars it is not possible to make all building/unit/tech etc. and it is not necessarily to win. Each house should choose a specific vistory and make all his efforts for achieve this goal and avoid all what is not necessarily.
For exemple, a huge gold income could be interesting if you use it for buying troops and building, but you'll need some specific civic choice to make good use of this. If you haven't use of gold, so, don't build all this costly building which make you gain all this gold and build anything else which is more usefull for you to achieve victory.

[masaykh]

Hm i turned off many victory conditions and almost win - nuclear nukes good things)
also...how i got ixian technology? i captured ixian city and now i can build 2 their units)

about strategy - i know i i simply like to build large civ not to win but to play) (i like process not the result)

[Ahriman]

When an Ixian faction builds a Landing Stage and selects Ixian Technologies, a dummy building is created that provides that resource. If you capture the city that contains that building, you get access to the resource. The same thing happens for other Landing Stage buildings, like the Sardaukar cooperation resource.

It's of course fine to not try to win the game and just to enjoy playing, but the game balance is not particularly designed to support that kind of experience.