Dynasties of Dune Dev Diaries

[amateurgamer88]

Dynasties of Dune Dev Diary #1 - Introduction

Hello everyone and welcome to the 1st Dev Diary for Dynasties of Dune.

I'm amateurgamer, or AG for short. I handle most of the coding and much of the brainstorming and/or implementation of ideas in the mod. I have the honor of collaborating with @Deliverator on this mod. Deliverator is the artist so you can thank him for the great looking art in the mod (and has no association with the bad art placeholders I've added). The mod, as you noticed from the name, is tied to the Frank Herbert's Dune Universe. The mod is still in very early stages of development (might as well call it pre-alpha). Luckily, there is enough content for the mod to be properly released for some early playtesting. Many art assets are missing and they will be added when they are ready. If you are curious about what this mod has to offer, I did include some screenshots below.

I don't want to bore everyone with too much info. Therefore, I will briefly cover some major aspects of the mod and people can explore the rest of the mod themselves. Feel free to join the discussion in the Old World Discord. We are open to thoughts, feedback and suggestions. Reporting bugs, typos and other issues is also appreciated!

First, let's talk about the factions.

Spoiler Factions :

There are currently only four factions: House Harkonnen, House Atreides, House Corrino and Fremen. More will be added once the mod is more developed.

Each faction has its own trait, set of families to pick from when founding Cities and unique techs. Unique techs opens up a lot of options to differentiate the factions. The eventual goal is to make those options diverse enough so even playthroughs of the same faction can be different each time.

Secondly, we have the mapscript.

Spoiler Map :

We have adopted the Archipelago map for Arrakis. More changes are coming with plenty of art assets to be added in the future. Below is a start to give you an idea of what to expect for now:

Next, we have the tech tree.

Spoiler Tech Tree :

Below is the tech tree.

The techs are broken into five categories. Row 1 and 2 belong to the Survival Techs. Row 3 and 4 belong to the City Development Techs. Row 5 and 6 belong to the Empire Development Techs. Row 7 and 8 belong to the Religion Techs. The remaining rows are reserved for Unique Techs mentioned earlier with Factions.

After that, let's have a quick look at the yields.

Spoiler Yields :

Dynasties of Dune reuses many of the Icons and a few of the Yields. Money (now known as Solaris), Order, Science and Civics work the same. New yields are: Spices, Local Material, Offworld Supplies, Fuel, Devotion, Manpower and Intel.

That's all for this time! Thank you for reading! I'm unsure when the next DD will be out but I will be posting in this thread when it's ready!

 

[amateurgamer88]

Reserved.

 

[amateurgamer88]

Reserved.

 

[The_J]

Looks great, keep us updated please .

 

[Deliverator]

Just sharing a couple of screenshots to show some of the portraits that have been created so far for starting characters as well as random portraits for the Great Houses and Fremen.

 

[The_J]

Looking good .

 

[amateurgamer88]

Dynasties of Dune Dev Diary #2 - Spice and Laws

Hello everyone! Welcome to the 2nd Dev Diary of Dynasties of Dune.

I wasn't planning to make a Dev Diary so soon but a recent OW update broke a few things and a new Dynasties of Dune update was needed. Taking advantage of this update, I would like to take a moment to share two key changes that come with the new update. These aren't massive changes but they are critical to the mod's foundation.

Spoiler He who controls the spice controls the universe :

A dune mod would be incomplete without spices. A tricky bug in the mod actually made spice fields unable to spawn but that bug has been fixed.

In addition to the spice fields (graphics to be updated in the future) spawned by the mapscript, there are now events that randomly spawn spice fields each turn. You may find a city site below in one of your games and wish to claim it for yourself!

The randomness will greatly alter the game experience as you may have an abundance of spice fields in one game or scarcity in another. How you adapt to such randomness will determine the fate of your faction and the universe.

Spoiler Bringing laws to the lawless Arrakis :

Arrakis was truly lawless when we last visited it in the first Dev Diary. That will no longer be the case! The factions know that they need every edge they can get to dominate Arrakis and they have so many choices now.

Each faction currently has two unique laws to pick from in addition to the thirty-six other laws to be unlocked through certain technologies. Mix and match the laws to get your faction ahead of the others.

That's all for this time! Thank you for reading! Still plenty of work to be done!

 

[CornPlanter]

Wow. I must not hype. Hype is the mindkiller. Hype is the little-death that brings total obliteration. I will face my hype. I will permit it to pass over me and through me. And when it has gone past, I will turn the inner eye to see its path. Where the hype has gone there will be nothing. Only I will remain.

 

[RedMaul]

Looks very promising. One reason to buy Civ6?

 

[Deliverator]

Looks very promising. One reason to buy Civ6?

This a mod for the game Old World by Mohawk Games rather than Civ 6.

 

[RedMaul]

Oops! My bad, but happy to look at Old World too

 

[amateurgamer88]

Dynasties of Dune Dev Diary #3 - Council and Urban Improvements

Hello everyone! Welcome to the 3rd Dev Diary of Dynasties of Dune.

This update isn't as big as the previous ones because it has mostly bugfixes and balance changes. There are also many things from OW that's slowly reintroduced into the mod. The two components we'll look at are Council and Urban Improvements.

Spoiler Council :

Each faction can have up to nine council members at one time. Each council member has at least two missions available to them (and more to come in future patches).

How will one get enough courtiers to fill all these seats? Projects, locked behind techs, can be unlocked so you can hire courtiers as long as one has the Solaris to entice them to your court.

Spoiler Urban Improvements :

The Urban Improvement lines all offer different bonuses. For instance, Hamlet line is the sole provider of Solaris while the Market line provides valuable Offworld Supplies. With Discontent being a bigger factor, both the Odeon and Courthouse lines are viable options to keep your people happy.

Unlike Old World, all Urban Improvements in Dynasties of Dune require an Urban tile. With limited Urban tiles around each City Site, how will you use those tiles? Will you specialize by focusing on the Science Urban Improvements? Will you find a balance by constructing some Civics, Solaris and Manpower Urban Improvements? Is Discontent placing too much burden on your Cities and both the Odeon and Courthouse lines are needed? The scarcity of Urban tiles will force you to think very carefully what you do with each of your Cities.

Note: Not all buildings shown below is used (yet)

That's all for this time! Thank you for reading! Still plenty of work to be done!

 

[RedMaul]

Looks very promising, thanks!

 

[Groo the One]

Very impressive. Waiting for the (close to) final version!

 

[amateurgamer88]

Dynasties of Dune Dev Diary #4 - Unique Units and Tribal Missions

Hello everyone! Welcome to the 4th Dev Diary of Dynasties of Dune.

This update has two key changes: unique units and tribal missions. The former will impact the battlefield while the latter can give an economic edge.

Spoiler Unique Units :

Each faction has two unique units (names were taken from Dune: Spice Wars). The unique units are meant to give each faction some edge in combat and shouldn't be neglected. They do require a unique tech so see it as an investment.

Portraits for unique units are OW assets for now.

Spoiler Tribal Missions :

Tribal missions are unique missions available once you ally tribes. Previously, it's only beneficial in eliminating tribes and take their city sites. Now, there's an incentive to ally them and gain access to missions that can give you an economic edge over your competitors.

That's all for this time! Thank you for reading! Still plenty of work to be done!

 

[RedMaul]

Good reading

 

[Blake00]

Good stuff! I'm always on the hunt for Dune mods for Civ like games. How's your project going?