Bonus Resources and Bonus Placement

[Deliverator]

Some information about the current state of Bonuses and Bonus Placement. These are the current Dune Wars bonuses (yes, I know the correct plural is boni) :

Current Bonus List

Special Bonuses:
Groundwater, Spice

+1 Water Dew Plants:
Sword Grass, Burro Weed, Spiked Paintbush, Barrel Cactus, Creosote, Sand Verbena

+1 Hammer Bonuses:
Soostone, Crystal, Jasmium Quartz, Plaz, Ore, Nettele, Skein, Plasteel, Fogwood

+1 Commerce Bonuses:
Phibian Root, Sapho, Spice Dye, Burro Bush, Minerals, Shigawire, Nitrat, Smoke Tree

Other Bonuses:
Iridium, Refined Water(?), Refined Spice(?)

Imported Goods:
Imported Incense, Imported Silk, Imported Spices, Imported Nutrients (I think these take the place of Hit Singles, Hit Musicals, and Hit Movies, but not sure)

Dummy Graphical Bonuses:
Sandtrout, Little Maker

Civ4BonusInfos

As of Dune Wars 1.3, bonus placement was overhauled completely. The file defining bonus placement rules is Civ4BonusInfos.xml. There are currently only a few tags that are significant in determining placement for each bonus resource:

<iPlacementOrder>: The order in which bonuses are placed, starting at zero and counting up. All of the zero resources will be placed before proceed to those with iPlacementOrder 1 and so on. If after the higher priority bonuses are placed there are no available squares left, then none of the lower priority bonuses will actually appear.

<iTilesPer>: This determines the amount of each bonus to be placed proportionate to the total number of tiles on the map. So, an iTilesPer of 256 means "Place one of this resource for every 256 tiles on the map". Halving the number means double the number will be placed (provided there is available room) and doubling this number will half the number to be placed.

<bHills>,<bPeaks>,<bFlatlands>,<TerrainBooleans>,<FeatureBooleans>,<FeatureTerrainBooleans>: these all determine what terrains and features the bonus can appear on. Adding FeatureBoolean for Forest on its own seems to do nothing unless you add Grassland to FeatureTerrainBooleans to tell it that this bonus can appear on Grassland Forest.

<iGroupRange>,<iGroupRand>: These tags are used when you want to have little clumps of bonuses. iGroupRange = 1, iGroupRand = 25 means that for every one of this bonus placed there is a 25% change of another of the same bonus appearing within a 1 tile radius.

<iUnique>: Prevents bonus clumping. When set to 1, no two adjacent tiles may contain this resource. The downside is the available space on the map is used up more quickly. Note: there is a hardcoded game rule that means that two adjacent tiles cannot contain two different bonuses.

<bNormalize> This tag is meant to add extra of this bonus for starting positions. I've not seen it make a huge difference, perhaps because the map is already full of bonuses when it gets to this stage.

<iAIObjective> This makes the AI care more about this bonus. If that sounds vague then that's because it's all I know about it...

Bonus Placement

This is the bonus placement strategy in 1.3.1:

iPlacementOrder = 0, iTilesPer = 8
Groundwater - Due it's importance to growth this is much more common than everything else. iUnique, iAIObjective, bNormalize are set to 1 for this and this only at present. Since it has order 0, all groundwater is placed onto an empty map before any other bonus is placed. Other bonuses then have to fill in around it.

iPlacementOrder = 1, iTilesPer = 70
Sword Grass, Burro Weed, Spiked Paintbush, Barrel Cactus, Creosote, Sand Verbena -These have iGroupRange=1, iGroupRand=30 for clumping.

iPlacementOrder = 2, iTilesPer = 256
All +1 Hammer Bonuses and +1 Commerce Bonuses: iTilesPer has to be high otherwise the process doesn't get through all the resources before running out of space.

iPlacementOrder = 4, iTilesPer = 256
Iridium: There's no logically reason for this to have order = 4, but it does for now.

iPlacementOrder = 6, iTilesPer = 256
Sandtrout, Little Maker: These are cosmetic only.

I'm sharing all this info so that others can play with the tuning of the system. As I've said before, bonus placement is as key as the mapscript in determining the landscape of Arrakis.

One issue is that a bonus placement strategy for one mapscript can work poorly on another. We may face this issue with Cephalo's mapscript - but I believe you can code bonus placement into a script as well which may get around this issue.

Other Discussion Points

Other points/queries about bonuses:
1) Flavour-wise I think Shigawire and Fogwood should be replaced with something else as these plants are not native to Arrakis.
2) A lot of these bonuses are a complete mystery as to what they are. As Koma said in another thread, in order to decide prerequisites for units, we need to have a vague idea what these substances represent. Perhaps, we can use this thread to gather background info on these bonuses which can then go in the Pedia.
3) I think Burro Bush is too similar to Burro Weed and should be renamed to something more different.
4) Minerals is a bit generic - perhaps Gemstones or Diamonds would be appropriate. Also, what is Nitrat - is it a typo for Nitrate or Nitrates?

 

[Ahriman]

I think you need to include a design for the improvements that are buildable on them here.

So, there are 3 wells for groundwater, 3 mines for minerals, and then a bit of a mixup of farm replacements, pasture replacement, winery replacement for the others.
These probably need to be rationalized a little.

Maybe split them three ways;
i) late games ones (like sapho) that have significant tech requirements for visibility use the winery replacement, and have good tile yields
ii) early game ones that provide a global health bonus or happy bonus have low-medium tile yields, have these use the pasture replacement
iii) early game ones that do not provide a global bonus have a higher tile yield, or a tile yield that increases with tech more. Have these use the drip farm, and maybe replace the techs that currently give growth facility/greenhouse with a straight +1 tile bonus to the drip farm.

The 3 levels of dripfarm/growth complex/greenhouse currently don't do anything.

Since only bonuses and hills provide water, the -1 water from solar farms is irrelevant and should probly be removed.

 

[davidlallen]

I think you need to include a design for the improvements that are buildable on them here.

So, there are 3 wells for groundwater, 3 mines for minerals, and then a bit of a mixup of farm replacements, pasture replacement, winery replacement for the others.
These probably need to be rationalized a little.

I did rationalize them a little in June, but I agree that more can be done. The post did not go into much detail, but please see this link for what I was trying to accomplish. It is likely that adding "water for food" has changed a lot of the underlying assumptions.

In vanilla, you have improvements which operate on groups of resources:

* farm (food bonus: wheat, corn, rice)
* camp (happy/health mix: deer, furs, ivory)
* pasture (food/hammer bonus: horse!, cow, sheep, pig)
* mine (happy bonus: silver, gold, copper!, iron!, gems)
* winery
* plantation (happy/health mix: banana, etc)

The three with ! are the hidden ones. I have left off some late game ones like uranium; if we can get the early game right we can work on the late game ... later. Also the fishing boat applies to crab, clam and fish; this does not have a DW equivalent but the greenhouse and growth complex are supposed to compensate for that.

I tried for something similar without simply making a 1:1 replacement. But, in the same order as vanilla, DW has these improvements:

* Drip Farm (food: Burro Weed, Sword Grass, Sand Verbena)
* Complex (happy/health: Fogwood, Phibian, Root, Burro Bush)
* Dew Collectors (food/hammers: Spiked Paintbrush, Creosote, Barrel Cactus)
* Mine (happy/hammer: Crystal!, Ore!, Soostone!, Minerals, Shigawire, Jasmium)
* Grove (happy/health: Smoke tree, Sapho)
* Soil enricher (happy/health: Nettele, Spice dye, Nitrat, Skein)

The dew collector now also affects Sand Verbena, Burro Weed, Sword Grass. I did not look back at the happy/health values after Deliverator added the dew collector, but if he did not change much, that is the current design.

 

[keldath]

very good idea to make this thread!

 

[Ahriman]

Currently there are some resources that can have *either* farms or dew collectors built on them, which is somewhat confusing.
Worse, on some of them the farms give the resource and bonuses (and growth complex is better than drip farm, etc.) and on others the farms don't.

I think before redesigning these you probably need to finalize the list of resources; I know there was pressure from some people to remove some of the resources that are in the Dune universe but wouldn't really be found on Arrakis (Shiggawire, fogwood etc.)

Once you have a final list of resources, you can rationalize which improvements go with which, and what the tile yields are, and which techs provide an upgraded version or a tile yield bonus.

 

[davidlallen]

Currently there are some resources that can have *either* farms or dew collectors built on them, which is somewhat confusing.

Yes, this can be seen from my list; Sand Verbena, Burro Weed, Sword Grass are added to dew collector with a different effect from drip farming. This is the only change from the rationalized set I had before. Apart from this one double effect, you seem to feel the system is irrational. Do you agree that the design matches fairly well with vanilla if you remove these three doubles? The total number of health, happiness, hammer and commerce bonuses is very similar to vanilla.

I think before redesigning these you probably need to finalize the list of resources; I know there was pressure from some people to remove some of the resources that are in the Dune universe but wouldn't really be found on Arrakis (Shiggawire, fogwood etc.)

When keldath created the original set of resources, he went through the Dune wiki page, which is equivalent to the appendix in the original Dune book, and picked out every single plant name listed. It is true that some of these are non-native to Arrakis. As it is, due to removal of the ocean bonuses like fish, crab, clam we have slightly fewer resources than vanilla.

Please suggest new names. Otherwise the best we can do is to keep the ones we have. At least they make the game "sound" like Dune, even if it contradicts some of the details of the appendix. I tried searching for generic desert plant names but I wasn't able to get many.

 

[Ahriman]

I have no problem with the resources you have, or with the basic design. They work well.

The main thing I think needs to be rationalized are the tile yields. I'm fine with groundwater being much larger, though I'd consider giving it a +1 base water yield (and 1 less from the wells), as some of it will likely bubble to the surface in springs and oases and shallow wells even without significant improvements.

But I'd make the others more roughly equal in value.

If burrow weed, sword grass and sand verbena are going to get drip farms that upgrade to growth complex that upgrades to greenhouses, and mines that can be upgraded, why not some increased yields from Complex or Dew Collectors?
Why not merge together grove and soil enricher - it also feels weird for a soil enricher to be giving hammer bonuses, from Skein and the like (what is skein anyway?).

A resource that gives a health or happy bonus should have lower tile yields than one that just gives tile bonus, but both should be upgradable over the course of the game, either through upgrades or just bonuses from new techs (like windtraps get).

Otherwise, civs that start near one type of resource have a big advantage over civs that start near the other.

I think there needs to be a bit more consideration of what is "health" now, and what resources and buildings should give it.

In particular, I think things like the city wind trap and city quanat should give a +water income rather than health, so that you can keep a city growing a little more even without bonus resources by investing in infrastructure.
You might even want to eliminate health entirely, and just have city growth based on water supplies.
What does health really accomplish in this mod? Do we really think that having enough doctors or not is an important determinant of growth in this future world?
Health makes sense for human history, where sanitation and disease *was* a big determinant, but in the far future?

Obviously this would need a lot of building elimination or tweaking, but I think this is a good thing, the mod is a little cluttered with buildings.

 

[Deliverator]

I think the approach of getting the bonuses settled and the rethinking/redesigning the improvements based on these, suggested by Ahriman, makes a lot of sense. We don't have to copy the vanilla structure providing we can tick all the boxes in terms of growth, economy and fun.

I think we should come up with replacements for Fogwood, Burro Bush, Minerals and Shigawire. They don't have to be plants remember, they can animals/birds or minerals. So we need one new +1 Hammer bonus and three +1 Commerce bonuses. Can't be too hard to think up something...

Once we have those in place we can redesign improvements, asking 'do we need this?' and 'what purpose does this serve?' with each one.

 

[davidlallen]

Renaming stuff is certainly fine, and zero impact on the system. I found that it wasn't really possible to design improvements and bonuses separately when I did the current system; I grouped together 3-4 bonuses under one improvement and then for that "family", I gave them related benefits.

I think it certainly requires some kind of a spreadsheet to track, and I also found it very helpful to write the related xml and try it out locally.

Can anybody suggest any names at all?

 

[Deliverator]

I'll have a think about the bonus names - it would be good to get down a little description of what each bonus is too - even if we have to invent one.

 

[Deliverator]

Here's a run down of the bonuses in patch 1.3.4. My general aim has been to get bonuses that are actually defined and have varied functions in the game, whilst be as true to the books as possible.

You'll have to check the pedia for now to see all the details of the bonus and improvements. I'll flesh out the details here when I have a chance.

Water Bonuses

There are now 3 varieties of Groundwater as suggested by Ahriman, Groundwater (Meagre), Groundwater, Groudwater (Plentiful), with -2, -1 and 0 water modifiers respectively to the existing groundwater. Groundwater now produces +1 water unimproved. There is a new Cloud bonus that is revealed with Way of Liet. It gives +2 water from Wind Traps and only appears on Hills. I'd like this bonus to be more integrated into Terraforming so that more appears as you go on. In Children of Dune Jesicca returns to Arrakis and comments on the clouds that now appear in the sky. Screenshot to follow.

Dew Plants

Six is a lot, but they are good for desert flavour.

Barrel Cactus - Barrel Cactus is approximately barrel-shaped, with numerous, pronounced ribs and long yellow spines. It is the last of the cacti to bloom in the calendar year. When it does bloom, a bright orange flower appears. The flower yields to a yellow small pineapple-shaped fruit.

Creosote Bush - Creosote Bush is a form of shrub native to Arrakis. It requires very little water, and is capable of digging deep into sand dunes to find it. It has shallow roots to catch rain, it also has bad odour to repel animals and poison at the base of the trunk. The bush also has shiny leaves that catch and hold water. When the Fremen of Arrakis need to perform delicate work with their hands, they often remove the gloves from their stillsuits and rub their hands with leaves from the creosote bush. This prevents perspiration through the hands.

Spiked Paintbush - Spiked Paintbush is a flowering plant with numerous large thorns. The flowers of the Spiked Paintbush are edible and sweet, and are believed by the Fremen to have many medicinal qualities.

Sand Verbena - Sand Verbena grows as a sand-hugging mat one to four inches tall and up to three feet wide. Because sticky glands cover the surface of the plant, sand grains adhere to flowers, stems, fruit, and leaves. The flowers of the Sand Verbena are bright pink in colour.

Sword Grass - Sword grass is a type of grass with blades that are sharp enough to cut human skin. This is because they contain many silica phytoliths, a hardening material in many plants. The sharp blades help to discourage herbivores from eating it. With care, dew may gathered from patches of Sword Grass.

Burro Weed - Burro Weed is a form of shrub, that thrives in the desert due to its shallow roots and glossy gray-green leaves.

Strategic Resources

The definition of stategic resources in vanilla goes: "Most of these resources are essential, as they allow you to create certain unit types or increase wonder production. They also add production value to your cities". The big problem in the 1.3.3 set is that too many of the resources have mystery definitions so it is hard to know their strategic value. Also, strategic resources shouldn't IMO be finished produce like Plasteel and Plaz - you don't mine for steel and the vanilla strat resources as more like this. According to the Jacurutu guys, "I believe basalt is the only type of rock mentioned so quartz is a possibility. But nothing but spice is worth mining for." so we've pretty much got to fictionalise to get minerals with strategic value on Arrakis. I've tried to come up with a plausible and interesting list.

Stravidium - Stravidium is used in the creation of Plasteel, an extremely tough form of steel. Making Plasteel involves weaving Stravidium fibers into the crystal structure.

Jasmium Quartz - Sheets of Jasmium Quartz can processed to make Metaglass by high-temperature gas infusion. Metaglass is noted for its extreme tensile strength and capacity as a selective radiation filter.

Diamonds - Diamond is an arrangement of carbon atoms in a crystal structure called a diamond lattice. It has the highest hardness and thermal conductivity of any known material available in bulk. Diamond also has remarkable optical characteristics. The major industrial application of Diamond is cutting tools.

Borax - Borax is most commonly found in the form of a white powder consisting of soft colorless crystals that dissolve easily in water. It has a wide variety of uses and is used in the manufacture of detergents, cosmetics, enamel glazes, fire retardant surfaces, insecticides and as a flux in metallurgy.

Sulfur - Sulfur in its native form is a yellow crystalline solid. Derivatives of sulfur are used in the manufacture of fertilizer, wastewater processing, and mineral extraction. They are also used as preservatives for dried fruit.

Nitrates - A Nitrate is a salt of nitric acid. It can be used in the manufacture of artificial fertilizers and explosives.

Iron Ore, Crystal - Don't have summaries yet, but can create later.

Commerce and Trade Goods

Hunting Resources

Desert Hawks - The Desert Hawks of Arrakis are hunted for their meat and for their feathers which are used for decoration. It is said that Paul Muad'Dib, upon witnessing the emergence of a young desert hawk from its shell, muttered the words: "Kull Wahad!" - an exclamation that means "I am profoundly stirred!".

Desert Hare - A Desert Hare is a leporid found and bred on the planet Arrakis during the ecological transformation of that planet by Planetologist Pardot Kynes. This hare would generally live among the rocks, thriving on small plants. The predators to this animal are generally Desert Owls and Desert Hawks, but they are also hunted by humans for their meat.

Insect Produce

The insect idea came from the etching resin and spice honey which are both in the books. Baradye pistols are mentioned in the books, but I have invented the fact that they are basically like cochineal-carmine dye.

He could still taste the morsel she had fed him--bird flesh and grain bound with spice honey and encased in a leaf.

Etching Resin - Wind etching, a method of sculpture, produces patterns of great delicacy and beauty. Many amoungst the Fremen are justly recognized as masters of the art. The process of wind-etching makes use of the resin secreted by the insect Laccifera Arctica. These insects live on the twigs of certain plants native to the northern near-polar regions of Arrakis and gather resin. This resin is collected and traded across the planet.

Spice Honey - Spice Honey is one of the staple foods of the Fremen, made by mixing honey and spice. The Fremen wrap the meat of birds or small mammals and grain in leaves and then coat the parcels in honey to sustain them during their long desert journeys.

Baradye - Baradye is a crimson-colored dye obtained from the carminic acid produced by a variety of insect. This insect lives on the cactus commonly known as the Prickly Pear, feeding on its moisture and nutrients. The pulverised bodies of the insects are boiled and filtered to produce Baradye. Amongst other things, Baradye is used to lay down markers on the sand of Arrakis with Baradye Pistols.

Plantation Crops

Plantations are stepping stone to Pardot Kynes plan for changing Arrakis. I have made the new Desert Plantation tech a prerequisite for the Way of Liet.

Coffee - Coffee is a plant that was part of the terraforming project that began on the planet Arrakis during the time of Pardot Kynes. Coffee, the hot beverage prepared from the roasted seeds of the plant, is a popular drink among the Fremen, who usually lace it with the spice melange.

Cotton - Cotton is a soft fiber that grows around the seeds of the cotton plant. The fiber was most often spun into thread and used to make a soft, breathable textile, which was a popular natural-fiber cloth in the days of the Imperium. It was one of the shrubs cultivated in the ecological transformation of the planet Arrakis under Planetologist Pardot Kynes.

Incense - The incense bush is a shrub that was planted on the planet Arrakis during the ecological transformation program begun by Pardot Kynes. Incense plays an important role in the religious rites of Arrakis.

Cereal - Cereals, such as Wheat, were introduced to Arrakis as a terraforming agent and staple food during Planetologist Pardot Kynes' ecological experiments.

There is also a new goody hut graphic using the bedouin meeting from Warlords:

Tech Tree Changes

I've changed the early tech tree around a bit to accomodate these resources.

There is some tidy up and refinement still to do, but I thought I'd put it up now to get some feedback. I can then do a polishing sweep based on feedback.

IMPORTED GOODS AND HOUSE ECAZ

Here are some entries from the appendix of Dune.

ECAZ: fourth planet of Alpha Centauri B; the sculptors' paradise, so called because it is the home of fogwood, the plant growth capable of being shaped in situ solely by the power of human thought.

SAPHO: high-energy liquid extracted from barrier roots of Ecaz. Commonly used by Mentats who claim it amplifies mental powers. Users develop deep ruby stains on mouth and lips

SEMUTA: the second narcotic derivative (by crystal extraction) from burned residue of elacca wood. The effect (described as timeless, sustained ecstasy) is elicited by certain atonal vibrations referred to as semuta music.

ELACCA DRUG: narcotic formed by burning blood-grained elacca wood of Ecaz. Its effect is to remove most of the will to self-preservation. Druggee skin shows a characteristic carrot color./ Commonly used to prepare slave gladiators for the ring.

VERITE: one of the Ecaz will-destroying narcotics. It renders a person incapable of falsehood.

Many of the substances in the appendices are not native to Arrakis but come from offworld. A lot of these are really interesting and would still be good to keep in the game. My idea is that we should use these resources instead of the generic Imported Nutrients, Imported Silk that we currently have. I think it would be interesting for every faction to have a unique spaceport, which produces bonuses unique to them (like Hollywood in vanilla or the FFH2 palaces which produce different mana types). This way, once Space Ports is research, the Atreides can start receiving Caladan produce, the Harkonnen can receive Inkvine from Geidi Prime and so on. These bonuses could form prerequisites for units, such that if you can trade for a unit of the imported substance you can build a new type of unit if you have the tech. This would give trade more and diverse strategic importance.

Looking at the examples given above it also gave me the idea for House Ecaz. You don't have to read too much between the lines to assume that the inhabitants of Ecaz are the drug barons of the Duniverse. You go to the Ixians for your machines, the Tleilaxu for your genetic engineering and to Ecaz for your narcotics. If we create them as a faction then their spaceport can produce twice as many imported goods as the other factions, giving them a higher happy cap, more trade opportunities and potentially access to certain units. For example, if you trade with Ecaz and obtain Sapho Juice then you can build Mentat units.

 

[keldath]

wow,
remarkable work deliverator.

 

[Deliverator]

The new and changed improvements are:

Hunting Camp - built on Desert Hawks and Desert Hares
Insect Farm - built on Spice Honey, Baradye, Etching Resin
Desert Plantation - built on Coffee, Cotton, Incense and Cereal. (I haven't yet but I think I'll make this -1 water)
Qanat - replaces Drip Farming creates +1 water on any irrigated tile
Qanat System has been renamed to Aquabore

All strategic resources are exploited by the Mine improvements.

Complex, Growth Facility and Greenhouse are removed/replaced. I thought they were just too vague and boring.

I want to change Iridium to Uranium or Plutonium since Iridium is a tough metal (covered by Stravidium & Iron Ore -> Plasteel) and I think we need a radioactive resource for atomics. Probably I'm going to change to graphic to orange colour and glow to distinguish it from Crystal.

Since the Dew Plants are all quite similar, we can probably stretch to another 2 strategic resources and another 2 commerce/other resources. Sulphur, Borax and Nitrates have a bit of overlap usage-wise - if people have suggestions I'm happy to change them or add more. It would perhaps be good to have some strategic resources that are not mined but have some other improvement.

I imagine the worm cycle resources - Little Maker and Sandtrout - unchanged in 1.3.4 will effectively be strategic resources since they will be needed to make Revered Mothers, etc.

I think in the follow-up patch, I'll rename Desert Hunting to Desert Survival and put Dew Collectors on there. Then I'll put a new Desert Fauna tech (for Hawks, Hares and Hunting Camps) with the prereq of Desert Insects and something else.

 

[Deliverator]

Civilization Unique Bonus Resources (Imported Goods)

Here's a fleshing out of the Imported Goods idea.

These will be available with UBs Atreides Spaceport, Harkonnen Spaceport, etc. available at the Space Ports tech (with the exceptions of the Fremen factions and the Guild).

ATREIDES: (Either of... )
Caladanian Wine - The Southern Continent of Caladan is home to many fine Caladanian wines that are traded throughout the Empire.
Pundi Rice &#8211; A mutated rice whose grains, high in natural sugar, achieve lengths up to four centimeters; chief export of Caladan.

HARKONNEN:
Inkvine - Creeping plant native to Giedi Prime and frequently used as a whip in its slave pens. Victims are marked by beet-colored tattoos that cause residual pain for many years.

TLEILAXU:
Sligs - One of the earliest successes of Tleilaxu genetic engineering, the slig is a hybrid livestock animal &#8212; a cross between a large slug and a Terran pig. The meat has been called 'The sweetest meat this side of heaven.' and marinated slig medallions in rich Caladan wine sauces are considered a prime delicacy. Despite being the producers of sligs, the Tleilaxu themselves do not consume the animals.

CORRINO:
Shigawire &#8211; Metallic extrusion of a ground vine (Narvi narviium) grown only on Salusa Secundus and III Delta Kaising. It is noted for extreme tensile strength and used as a recording medium (among other things).

IX:
Thinking Machines - Intelligent and sentient machines.

BENE GESSERIT:
Meta-Cyanide - A lethal and rapid-acting poison, used on the gom jabbar needle
in the Bene Gesserit death-alternative test of human awareness.

FENRING:
Kindjal - A Kindjal is a large knife with a slightly curved double-blade approximately 20cm long. Many family members of Great Houses were tought how to wield this weapon during the days of the Faufreluches.

FREMEN/SIETCH-TABR:
Stillsuits &#8211; Body-enclosing garments of Fremen design which perform the functions of heat dissipation and filtering of bodily wastes, as well as retaining and reclaiming moisture.
There can be a Stillsuit Maker UB for these civs, available with the Stillsuits tech, that produces the Stillsuit resource.

ORDOS:
They are made up by Westwood, so we'll have to invent something. They come from an ice planet so that could shape the choice. Perhaps we could use this from the Appendix, suitable for a financial, profit-driven house?
Opafire - one of the rare opaline jewels of Hagal.

SPACING GUILD:
Nothing - Eventually I hope we can have them making money from shipping goods and units by doing that funky fold-space thing. That would be most appropriate.

I'd like to add House Ecaz and they could have 3 or 4 imported goods as part of their unique faction ability.

The idea is that some of these will have a happy benefit while others will be purely strategic, enabling the production of certain units.

 

[koma13]

New Resources are looking great.

The only ones I don't like are the cotton based models (cresote bush, sand verbena, ...)
They surely can survive in a dutch greenhouse but on Arrakis with storm speeds up to 350mph? Make them less fragile, maybe by reducing their height or making them more bulky towards the bottom.

 

[cephalo]

In the bonus XML, watch out for the bArea flag. If that is set to a one it means that a bonus is only supposed to be initially placed on one continent. By default, most luxury resources and health resources are set to 1. The intended effect of this is to promote trade rather than self sufficiency.

I'm not sure if this functionality make sense on Dune however. Plus, you have the imported goods to promote trade.

 

[Deliverator]

The only ones I don't like are the cotton based models (cresote bush, sand verbena, ...) They surely can survive in a dutch greenhouse but on Arrakis with storm speeds up to 350mph? Make them less fragile, maybe by reducing their height or making them more bulky towards the bottom.

Yeah, I can do something better for them no doubt. I had so many new resources to make/find that a few were just quick and easy reskins.

In the bonus XML, watch out for the bArea flag.

Yeah, know about that one. I'm fairly sure I've set it to zero everywhere.

 

[Ahriman]

Looks great. I'd have desert hares and hawks only spawn on desert (ie ocean) tiles. Does food source mean they provide water?

And do hawks really make sense as a food source?

 

[davidlallen]

Not sure if this is better off in the 1.3 feedback thread, but it probably fits better here. I have a locally improved version of civchecker which finds unreferenced files. It generates a lot of noise so I do not think I will release it. But, it finds a lot of unreferenced files among what you added in 1.3.4. This may be due to missing fields in your artdefines_bonus.xml.

For example, compare your ART_DEF_MARBLE against vanilla. In yours, there is no kfm file reference; in theirs, they define it. As a result, the kfm file in art/terrain/bonus/sulphur is unreferenced. Therefore the kf files and freezeNNNN.nif files are also unreferenced.

I guess I am pointing out that you may have a bunch of empty kfm fields in your artdefines; not sure if this is on purpose or not.

 

[Deliverator]

Looks great. I'd have desert hares and hawks only spawn on desert (ie ocean) tiles. Does food source mean they provide water?

Food source means some hammer bonus. My rationale is that good food sources mean
faster, stronger workers. Part of the decision we made in moving to water instead of food is that food has to be much more abstract, but I think it's worth it overall.

And do hawks really make sense as a food source?

I know bird meat could mean any sort of bird, but the Fremen being the ultra-pragmatists that they are I'm sure they wouldn't be averse to eating some hawk meat. The only two birds I can find in the original book are hawks and eagles. Eating eagle would probably feel just as strange. Plus hawks are cooler looking than Desert Chicken or whatever the alternatives are...