Dune scenario?

[Orthanc]

The infantry fom the mini series were good, and the ornithopters look good as aircraft but not 'ornithopters'. The Atreides 'thopter isn't an ornithopter at all, the Harkonnen one is more of a glider.

Despite this, once unit creation gets started (I hope others will do at least some unit creation for this bsides me) I'm thinking of using both the 'thopter of the mini series (the Atreides one, I don't particularly like the Harkonnen version) and my own design. I'll try and post a scan of a sketch for my next post here.

The sandcrawler is pretty good in both the series and games, if not identical so we could use that as a basis for the scenario's harvester. How do you people think the games/series portrayed the worms? I'm trying to gather information here so that I can produce the prefered units for this.

Anywho, this is looking good so far so I encourage people to keep following this!

 

[zealus]

Me going to the store today (if I will be able to get there with my flu, fever and sore throat) to purchase "Children of Dune" miniseries. I hope I'll be able to produce some more screenshots from that feature as well as from 1984 Dune movie (found it in my collection today).

Stay tuned.

 

[zealus]

Figaro,

can you provide links to the units you're referring to? I'd like to see what you have on your mind.

 

[Figaro]

http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=65153

There are the futuristic infantry... well, they would do for two sides. The green would do good Atredies IMHO and the blues would make excellent Sardaukar. The Trench Infantry is here, damn sorry I've mixed these two links up. One is the Trench infantry the other is the page in the Unit Artists Library wherew the futuristic units are... there are Tanks and Mech infantry too.
I reckon the Trench Infantry would make an OK Fremen, but that's just me.

http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=94981&page=1 http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=47175

Oh yeah, and the makers of these excellent units are BeBro and Kinboat,

 

[REJS7]

So who is going to do what in this project?
I don't mind commiting to civilopedia and other written stuff, as well as collating matterial that you guys add. I only have the original book plus a fizzy memory of the series and film. If there a web site with all this info on?

 

[Figaro]

I can't make units or anything but I'd be happy to contribute ideas and stuff, or write Civilopedia entries etc. etc. If you want a unit or a graphic, I could go and hunt it out for you

I've read all the original books, the predlude series and the first of the prelude-to-the-prelude series (the one that starts with the Butlerian Jihad (the one I've read)). I haven't seen either televization. I haven't got the time to re-read the books, or more accurately I have too many other things to read, and it was ages since I last read them so if anyone says anything about the books that contradicts what I say they're probably right.

I suppose I could piece a map together based on the ones in the prelude books (which are actually quite detailed and a lot clearer than the one in the original book), although I'd rather not as there are much better map-makers around and I've only got 'vanilla' civ3 (and I understand there are new terrain types in the expansions). On the subject of maps, we could even create maps of Caladan and Whatever-the-harkonnen-place-is-called because they are both included in the preludes as well. THen you could play invasion scenarios (rather like in the game).

One question though: Is this going to be a "start from scratch" scenario with a map that you basically have to colonize, or a pre-designed world with pre-placed cities etc. etc.?

I actually made a Dune scenario for Civ2 a while back. I think it's long since lost though.

 

[zealus]

Since I have started all of this I'll probably take on general project management , I'll write Civilopedia texts, develop tech tree (hopefully with contribution and help from you, guys), unit lines (although I would need a lot of assistance on balancing). Apparently we all providing ideas as well as will be doing testing, so that's not worth mentioning.

 

[zealus]

Figaro,

I actually watched Jin Roh feature and I must admit that Jin Roh troops more suit Harkonnen style - heavily armed and well armored. Just my 2 cents

 

[Figaro]

I presume you mean the blue guys, well I just thought Harkonnen troops wouldn't be blue, but there you go. Don't worry about me, I mean, if you guys all think atredies troops should wear moccassins or something then I won't tell you you're wrong...!


I've been hunting around for units on this site (and others) for a while (way before I joined) so if there's a particular unit you want, ask me and I may know where to get a good one.

I was thinking, of BeBro's mechanized units, there's a scout vehicle thing that would make a fine miscellaneous Groundcar (basically wheeled, fairly fast but rubbish on the desert and not desperately good on attack). The constructor could make a Harvester, unless someone makes one (incidentally, I agree with the idea of having the Harvester as a colony-building unit and banning cities from the outer desert - actually we should ban them from the outer desert anyway, but hey).

 

[zealus]

As I was watching the 1984 Dune yesterday for units and such, I have noticed that despite all the games' ideas of Atreides having blue color their banner is actually green and black (I think it has something to do with muslim religion, but I'm not very proficient here). Harkonnen are always red (in both the movie and miniseries), so that would be it.

Figaro,
as soon as we agree on unit lines we'll start harvesting the graphics.

The revised idea of units is as follows:

- a lot of infantry of different sorts. Light inf, adv. inf., heavy inf., fremen, fedaykin, sardaukar, you name it. It would also be fun to upgrade (having the proper tech) most of light inf. & fremen/fedaykin to worm riders increasing their defence rating and speed. I also liked the sound weapons of Atreides in the movie, so maybe we should use that too.
- some light and medium armored vehicles able to move anywhere;
- artillery (mostly heavy and not allowed to move on sand);
- rare heavy units (they vibrate a lot and have no chances whatsoever of escaping from worms), so it doesn't make sense to use them on sand.
- plenty of air units - various ornithopters, carriers, flyers, gunships, bombers, etc. Since all of them have the ability for vertical lift-off there will be no need for airfields and we can lift the restriction for air units to return to base at the end of the turn.

Let me know what you think, people

 

[Orthanc]

As said before, I will contribute unit graphics for those that we can't find elsewhere (ie: any original graphics you need produced, just ask). I'll also keep sending input for ideas and such. Anyhting esle needed just ask and I'll tell you if I can help.

Unfortunately I can't send in scans of my skecthes for the Ornithopters, since the scanner doesn't work (I think I lost the install disk or something), so I'll just send in an image of the model once I get, modelling.

 

[Figaro]

I've always seen Atriedes as Green, but if other people want them to be blue that's fine.

Here are my ideas on general unit trends...

INFANTRY
There should be 3-4 types for each side. A standard light infantryman, a more elite unit, a specialist (re. heavy weapons) and maybe a conscript or something, or perhaps a paratrooper/jetpacker or something.

TANKS
No more than 2 types (if that) per side. They should be expensive and largely difficult to use (re. SLOW in bad terrain), and generally worse than Infantry in everything except attack.

OTHER GROUND
Obviously a Harvester, I agree with the Colony builder idea (is there a way to change it from saying "Colony: Americans SPICE" to saying something like "Harvester: SPICE" or something?). Maybe a scout recon groundcar or something too.

AIRCRAFT
Definately a Fighter, Bomber, Gunship, Carryall, Troop Transport (Dropship?). There is also a scene in the book where the Imperials land a Frigate on the surface... no chance of designing one of those, Orthanc?

maybe we should just forget laser and shields...

I agree in the manner of messing about with special rules, but of course this doesn't stop us from having Attack animations where units shoot Lasguns I hope!

 

[zealus]

Figaro,
pretty much agree with you on everything except that tanks are actually designed to be better armored and armed (hey, that's the idea!) then other ground troops. Otherwise everything seems to be fine. I'll try to sketch a tech tree in a next couple of days so you can start taking it apart soon

 

[Figaro]

Well it was more to represent their unsuitabilty for the terrain, but hey.

 

[zealus]

Ok, can you post images of units that you think will suite this mod?

 

[DANGERBOY]

In labels.txt, you can change the labeling text, including colony-related text. For example, (B)uild Colony could be changed to (B)egin Harvesting. Do a search for "colony" in labels.txt. You can even change the currency type if you want! And of course, this labels.txt file can be scenario specific.

 

[Figaro]

Well, any of the X-com units that I posted the links for above... there are 9 infantry, 7 mechanized and 7 tanks or something. One of the tanks have desert camoflauge, though in retrospect that might not be what we're looking for. All the units would do well IMHO. Also the Trench Infantry I think would make a decent Fremen for now, I know he looks very primitive but there's something about the coat and the gas mask...

I definately think we should steer away from anything remotely connected to Star Wars by the way.

Here is a page from the unit Library with some great sci-fi units on it, particularly the crawler, Hovertank, APC and Laser Infantry.

Here also is a good air unit (the "Speed-oChopper) and another great Hovertank.

 

[The Great Apple]

Atradies are blue... I'm pretty sure it said somewhere in one of the books, though I could be mistaken. I got 4, 5, and 6 for xmas, and I'm half way through 5.

As for units, I've got my hands pretty full, but if there are any warhammer 40k units you can use, then drop me a PM, and I'll shove them up in my todo list.

 

[Figaro]

Are there any normal human soldiers in 40k? As opposed to Space Marines (they look too distinctive). I imagine anything else would look to 40kish though.

 

[Orthanc]

I think Atredies have blue armour and such, but their flag is green and black.

I'd be happy to design any air/spacecraft Figaro, even a different one for each house might be fun! I have an idea that each house uses a different wing style for their ornithopters ie: Atreides: Eagle Wings, Harkonnen: Bat Wings, just an idea for favouring. I also have several ideas for space ship design, and yeah we should steer clear of using Star Wars space units, they have totally different roles and design ideas.