Dune Wars Mod

this thread is no longer being updated - the mod has a sub forum - plz go there for latetst version :

http://forums.civfanatics.com/forumdisplay.php?f=358​

Dune Wars Mod Version 1.3
for patch 3.19​

This mod is The best adaptation we could made for civ4, for those of you who read the books, you'll find in the mod, many fictional elements, this had to be done in order to create a good and rich mod that will surpass the vanilla bts.​

dune wars creatores : keldath,davidallen, koma13, delivirator, johny smith,and Ajidica.​

Story Background :​

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Hello and welcome to Dune Wars. For those who are not familiar with Frank Herbert's epic Dune saga, this mod features a struggle between several factions based on family houses; such as the Imperial House Corrino, and a few organizations; such as the Spacing Guild who has a monopoly on space travel. They all fight to control one planet - Dune, Arrakis, a barren, dry, desert wasteland is valuable for one reason alone- the spice melange. The spice has the universe addicted to it; it extends life, it allows for the Navigators of the the Spacing Guild to Foldspace, travel from here to there without moving. It's the basis for the economy and trade of the known universe. The spice is created by Sand Worms, giant creatures that live their whole life in the sand. The Imperium calls them Shaitan, the Demon while the Fremen call the Shai-Hulud, Great Maker. The worms may grow larger than 400 meters long.

The ruler of the royal House Corrino, the Emperor Shaddam IV Corrino, has given control of the planet Dune to all of the Noble Houses. He decided on this after the current House controlling Dune, House Harkonnen, failed to meet spice quotas. The Harkonnens protested it was not their fault, it was due to a mysterious Fremen Umma (Prophet) by the name of Muad'Dib who they hailed as theor messiah. All of the Houses who could afford to land on Dune did so to be the next ruler of Dune. The Spice must flow, and whoever controls the Spice controls the universe.
-The Princess Irulan Corrino, The Arrakis Affair




Are you ready to become the sole ruler of Dune, and in turn, control the Universe?
DUNE WARS! . ​

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Features in the mod for version 1.2:

mod componants :


1.woc revdcm v2.5:
- influence driven war
- dale combat mod (battle effects are disabled)
- super spies
- bug 3.6
- inquisition
- limited religions
- advanced combat odds v1
2.unit statistics - disabled in version 1.2 -will be fixed later on.
3.shkype limit city growth - disabled for now
4.shkype city size preqeq - disabled for now
5.jculture control v2
5.jimprovement mod v1
6.secret tech mod - disabled for now
7.mountains back in service
8.goldcost mod - disabled for now
9.examine city
10.transforming v1.1
11.mastery victory by sevo
12.abandon city mod

the mod structure:

1. 10 playable civilizations
2. variety of leaders
3. 3 unique units to each faction
4. 2 unique building for each faction
5. changed terrain colors to desert like.
6. ocean is now a vast desert - same function though.
7. unique upgradable improvement system using jimprovement mod
8. unique spice resource system by davidallen deliverator and koma.
9. actuall worm art by deliverator.
10. two more victory conditions.
11. unique corporation system
12. a total conversion of all art in game.

everything in the mod is converted and changed,
some values remained the same as the vanilla - like civics and such.
7 religions and corporations.

download section​

important before you download and play :

1. play only through custom game option.
2. the mod is currently optimized with turned of mod componants, stability works 100% with the current settings.
3. theres a sound addon file - read the instructions how to make it work.
4. if you are playing vista - get in the altroot.py file in the game folder.
5. use the shortcuts the popup shows in the begining of a game ( bug mod for interface for example).


known issues:

1. several pedia entries are missing
2. might be some spelling errors
3. building art mostly using the vanilla game, this will be changed as we go with the versions.
4. if you have a ctd, error, plz post a savegame.
5. i know this wil be a dissappointment - but i dont have a worm sign event yet - i need someone with sdk + python skills...
6. the sound addon isn't complete - will be improved on next versions

download links:​

1.2 isnt identical to v.1.1 - 1.1 is just for those who didnt updated their civ yet.


For civ4 patch - 3.19 version 1.2:

v 1.2 link: http://rapidshare.com/files/246328043/dune_wars-1.2.exe


sound addon file - for 3.19:

soon



For civ4 patch - 3.17 version 1.1:

v.1.1 link: http://rapidshare.com/files/241191529/dune_wars-v-1.1.exe


sound addon file - for 3.17 :

http://rapidshare.com/files/236309821/sound_addon.exe - 98 mb zipped



instructions for using the sound file:
1.dl the sound addon file.
2. copy it to the dune wars folder.
3. extract the file.
4. overwrite all files.
​

Click to expand...

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version history :

Spoiler :

mod filev1.1 :http://rapidshare.com/files/236289022/dune_wars-v1.0.exe - 35 mb zipped

mirror : http://www.mediafire.com/?kkwvmnjz2un​

credits:

Phoenician
Ajidica
johny smith
koma13
davidallen
delivirator
the_j
melinko
vadus

for being a part of this mod, many thanks guys.

glider - woc rev dcm (and johny smith
the_j - mars mod
maniac - planetfall
avian - terraforming
jeckel - j-mods
Teg_Navanis - unit statistics (and johny smith)
sevo - mastery victory
pieceOfMind - combat odds
Nemo - abandom city ( and orion veteran)
jdog - revolution
smeagolheart - examine city on conquest
kael - assassination mod
mylon - enhanced city size
NeverMind -mountains back in service
Shqype - vicinity and city preqeq size
alerum68 and EmperorFool- bug mod

art makers (thanks the_j):

- delivirator - for making many units + the worm art
- GarretSidzaka
- The_Coyote
- Mechaerik
- C.Roland
- Woodelf
- KrugerPritz
- seZereth
- Nfstpoeopas

and the countless people that created all the buildings and unit art, i don't know who created which,
but if you pm me ll credit you,
huge thanks for art makers.



hope everyone enjoy this mod, we worked hard on it to bring you a first version that will be stable and fun.

for next version :


1. add 5 houses - 3uu+2 ub
2.add sdk code for starting location of units
3. do improvement buttons
4. add 10 techs
5. add planet buster
6. redo events


we need help !:

If you like this mod, and you have sdk, python xml, art skills,

i really need help to implement many ideas to this mod,
mainly i need sdk coders, for instance the worm sign/event, must be sdk based, and im no coder...

also
i need python modders - i want to have a special map scripts - that will place desert onstead of ocean, varus did a map like this but some tweaks are needed.

unit makers -
if anyone wiches to create units - that would really make the mod dunish.

anyone who wishes to help are more then welcomed.


remember people:

this version is just version 1.2,
it maybe a bit off balance and some stuff might not be optimized and missing,
the more feedback we get, the better this mod shall be.


enjoy another creation of mine,
try out my overlord2 mod if you into an enhanced bts game .


long live the fighters!

Unofficial patches :

none for now

reseved # 2

Wow! Looks promising.

keldath said:

5. i know this wil be a dissappointment - but i dont have a worm sign event yet - i need someone with sdk + python skills...

Click to expand...

Can Melinko not find the error?

keldath said:

credits:
varus

jackel - j-mods

Click to expand...

Vadus and jeckel.

For the art-credits:
- GarretSidzaka
- The_Coyote
- Mechaerik
- C.Roland
- Woodelf
- KrugerPritz
- seZereth
- Nfstpoeopas




imho the first thing you should focus on is now new buttons for the tech-tree.
Simple buttons are easy to create, they only need some time.

thanks the_j,

there's no error,
its just that he wrote a worm code , and he said he finished it, but, he disappeared before he sent it....


yeah,
the buttons will be done as well,
so will the resources.

Very nice now that its out. Would you like me to write some civ overviews?

civ overviews? what do you mean?

well done on the background story buddy.

What I meant by civ Overviews is like a shortened version of a pedia entry just to give some background knowledge, Eg:
House Corrino: Going back to the days immediatly following the Butlerian Jihad, House Corrino has ruled the known universe thtough economic, political, and military might. The military might of House Corrino comes from their feared Sardaukar legions. <Then you say what their rough miltary goals should be and what they excell at. As far as I can tell with Corrino, kill everything and consolidate.>

The d/l in CFC d/l section goes to this page:

Error
The file could not be found. Please check the download link.

This mod looks great so far! I was able to download it with no problems.

Some feedback:

It would be cool to have desert backgrounds in the dune-o-pedia views of the units, instead of grassland/mountains and water. I don't know how to do it but I will ask around.

There are a lot of typos in the unit names and tech names. If I can figure out which xml files are yours, I will fix them and send you an update.

I am a pretty good python coder; I can do unit AI with python. What do you need done with the worm? Does it do anything so far?

Some of the LH graphics, particularly the icons, are stretched or exceptionally lo-res. Do you have original jpg files? I can recut them.

I have not played all the individual mods you have incorporated into yours. I found it a little intimidating to have so many changes from vanilla civ. There are all kinds of icons around the screen I don't recognize. In particular, how do I turn off this blinking text at the bottom of the screen, "Click ctrl-alt-o to configure BUG"? I have clicked that and adjusted some of the controls, but the blinking text stays there. Very annoying.

It seems like your mapscripts are in pretty good shape (except for the waves on the "coast" of the desert). I can do mapscripting; what do you want done?

I like the icons for the promotions and units. Is it possible to redo all the tech icons using the same style? Having the vanilla tech icons is distracting.

It would be nice to replace the vanilla hints with real Dune hints. I haven't played the game enough yet to actually know any hints; but it is easy to replace file XML/GameInfo/CIV4Hints.xml and put text into the XML/Text directory.

davidlallen said:

It would be cool to have desert backgrounds in the dune-o-pedia views of the units, instead of grassland/mountains and water. I don't know how to do it but I will ask around.

Click to expand...

This is not a big thing, the civilopedia background is also a 3D-Modell with a skin.
I don't know, what files are needed (i'm not at my civ-computer), but i've done the equal thing in my mod (orange background).

davidlallen said:

I like the icons for the promotions and units. Is it possible to redo all the tech icons using the same style? Having the vanilla tech icons is distracting.

Click to expand...

They are hand-made by Phoenician, so this is probably a problem , but would be very nice.

This icons are sure the most personal icons in the mods here .

davidlallen said:

It would be cool to have desert backgrounds in the dune-o-pedia views of the units, instead of grassland/mountains and water. I don't know how to do it but I will ask around.

Click to expand...

The_J said:

This is not a big thing, the civilopedia background is also a 3D-Modell with a skin.
I don't know, what files are needed (i'm not at my civ-computer), but i've done the equal thing in my mod (orange background).

Click to expand...

Found the directories, anyway. I am not an artist, and I tried copying some dds files but it did not give the desired effect.

In Art/Interface/Screens/Civilopedia are four directories, ancientbattlefield (land units), skyenvironment (air units), waterenvironment (water units), amphibious. There are nif files there which refer to dds files. You will need to unpak the vanilla files to see the originals. I tried copying grounddetails.dds from amphibious, into waterenvironment/water_green.dds and ancientbattlefield/greengrass.dds, and I can see these are the right files to affect, but I could not edit the nif correctly.

Please, please please use the modified xml files in the attachment. I have fixed about 50 typos in the unit names. I have not made any other changes.

I have left what are probably some other typos but I was not sure: Oragnization, which should probably be spelled "CHOAM" (buildinginfos), Minimic should probably be "Mimic" but it is used consistently several times.

The_J said:

They are hand-made by Phoenician, so this is probably a problem , but would be very nice.

This icons are sure the most personal icons in the mods here .

Click to expand...

Well don't forget that I made the all of the default promotion replacements and and newers ones based on his drawings. I also did the religion and corporations symbols. But anyway it is easy to make a different background for promotions after you get a template to work with so probably will be more.

Just working with PSD files or something similar to save the layers is what I like to keep instead of having rework the dds each time. I was planning a lot more for some other mods I had in the works. But anyway just wanted to mention I did them. The other stuff was the rest of the crew not me.

I have not read through the entire dev thread or the related previous threads. I guess Melinko had some stuff planned for worms, but it was never released. I can see there are worm units in there, five variants with the same graphics but different stats. I guess the idea was that stronger worms would come later, based on prereq techs.

I have done a lot with animal AI in my Fury Road mod (radscorpions eat your farmers!). So I can definitely do something. If you already had a design, please let me know. I saw that Melinko was planning to use a complex sound mechanism and have individual wandering worms attracted to the sound.

Should the worms be actual units that wander the map? Or should each stack which is in sandsea have a chance to be attacked? One of the key points is that you can hear a worm coming and you have some chance to get away. But if the worm is in the middle of nowhere, it is underground and you would not be able to see it. For example, if you had a fast thopter, you might cross a lot of desert without attracting worms, but you would not be able to see any either.

Rather than tracking individual worms, it may be easier to have a worm pop up nearby to a loud stack, at max sight range, and then move one square per turn towards it. This is actually very similar to the animal AI in Fury Road which will attract animals to certain improvements to destroy them.

I notice that the worms in your XML are DOMAIN_LAND, which seems odd. They should be DOMAIN_SEA, right, and only able to move on sandsea? (EDIT: Now I'm a little confused. The only units of DOMAIN_SEA are hovers. So there can't really be any combat units in the sandsea, and therefore nothing for the worms to attack. But I am quite sure worms should not be able to move through rock to attack your DOMAIN_LAND units. How should we handle this?) (EDIT2: After looking at the terrain types, I guess worms should be DOMAIN_LAND and able to move into all land terrains except rocky hills and peaks.)

If there is no existing code or project, I will try to adapt my animal AI to your mod. It is a little intimidating since there are dozens of mods all linked together, with many files and directories. But if I can hook in, I can add some pure python code to control this one unit type.

(EDIT3: It seems that worms should be more like barbs than animals; they should ignore cultural boundaries. They should be able to destroy some improvement types and attack any units. It is likely that there would be cities on desert terrain; should worms be able to attack cities? I would think those are *too* noisy and would repel worms.)

Please let me know if there is any existing code or project for the worms. You can't have a "real" dune mod without them.

davidlallen,
hi there!

glad to see your enthusiasm about dune wars !

i will sure would like your help regarding the worms,

thanks alot for the xml files!

i will add them to a patch, i will have a patch when i get more stuff in it.

the domain land of worms, shouldnt matter acctualy - ive made them as allterrain movment...


ill pm you with a detaied info about melinkos work and progress.

johny smith,
as i wrote, your work, pheonician work,Ajidicam , are a massive part in this mod,
thats why i wrote keldath and freinds

you have my huge gratitude for al the amazing work you did, from coding woc into it to the interface.

***
keep on feeding me with posts, the more you report the better the next patch will be

****

davidlallen, i wrote you a detailed specs about the worm sign event , it will cover the way worms should be represented in this mod.

if anyone else can help, in any way - plz pm me.


strategyonly - tell me if you still have problems, i recheck the links.

The major mods like FFH have their own sub-forums. Fury Road has one (see my sig). The advantage of a sub-forum is that you can have multiple threads, which is very helpful when the volume of posts is high.

To get a sub-forum, all you have to do is PM one of the moderators of the customization forum and ask. I had thought there was some complicated process, but no, you just have to ask.

If you want to get a sub-forum, please ask. I think it will help organize if this mod catches on.

johny smith said:

Well don't forget that I made the all of the default promotion replacements and and newers ones based on his drawings. I also did the religion and corporations symbols.

Click to expand...

Sorry, that i forgot it , my fault .
It was really not intended.

I guess you went back and forth on this during development. Presently the sandsea is ocean and coast type, and the hover units are oceangoing units. At least theoretically, this means the AI should treat them as transports and use them for "naval" assaults. This seems to work fine. It is a little surprising that you can't build a hover unit except in a "coast" city; but once you figure that out it makes sense.

You have considered another possibility, which is to modify the mapscripts to turn all the ocean into desert. This is easy if you understand python and mapscripts. Please find attached ContinentsDavea.py, which is a tiny modification of the Continents.py in your release. This has a post-processing step which turns all the ocean and coast into grass. You will need to unzip the file and then put it into your PublicMaps directory. Then when you start a game, you will see a new map choice, ContinentsDavea.

If you use this, it will completely change the game. Hovers will be unusable since there is no ocean. I guess the game will still be playable, but you will want to make some major changes in order to adapt to no ocean.

The function I wrote is shown here:

Basically it loops over all the terrain, and if anything is ocean or coast, it becomes grass. If you had specific terrain types you wanted, you could easily modify this. If you have not edited python before, the main thing to be aware of is your tabs. The code above has tabs, and if your editor converts the tabs into spaces, you will face all manner of pain.

Do you want to have all land terrain? I can modify the other mapscripts to match. I think Archipelago may be a problem. A lot of the starting position code looks for coastline, and there won't be any, so it would probably fail.