robertmo wrote on 2023-07-03, 16:42:

When he is shooting at enemies located up from him, he is making max damage to enemies cause the sun is not blinding him cause he is in the shadow of the enemy units.

Are you a professional defense attorney?

robertmo wrote on 2023-07-03, 16:42:

When he is shooting at enemies located down from him, he is making max damage to enemies cause the sun is not blinding him.
When he is shooting at enemies located up-left and up-right from him, he is making half damage to enemies cause the sun is blinding him.
When he is shooting at enemies located up from him, he is making max damage to enemies cause the sun is not blinding him cause he is in the shadow of the enemy units.

Ah, now i see what you mean. Thanks a lot for taking the time to elaborate! 👍

That makes the mechanic seem more intentional. The behaviour also seems to be rather complex for it to be a bug . And it surely adds a bit more tactical depth (for the privy few who know about it).

Hmm, now i'm leaning more towards leaving it as it is, or at least turning the fix off by default.

gerwin wrote on 2023-07-03, 20:10:

robertmo wrote on 2023-07-03, 16:42:

When he is shooting at enemies located up from him, he is making max damage to enemies cause the sun is not blinding him cause he is in the shadow of the enemy units.

Are you a professional defense attorney?

😂

We need a judge here. Anybody got Brett Sperry's private number? 😜

Your honor, exhibit A:
https://dune2k.com/Duniverse/Games/DuneII/Manual
Does not mention the words "sun" or "shadow"
The word "direction" is there, but in different context.

I definitely see shadow here and it tells the location of the sun 😀

gameflorist wrote on 2023-07-03, 14:58:

I have no way of and am not interested in doing such an enormous rewrite. The game as it is seems very stable and performant to me, also resolution and scaling works without problems imho.

The main problem is that you can't revert to the vanilla state of the game. I think the project is dead since it was born. Also be prepared to fix a lot of hidden junk there.

robertmo wrote on 2023-07-03, 21:35:

I definitely see shadow here and it tells the location of the sun 😀

The image doesn't support the "Shooting north deals full damage, cause you're in the targets shadow" part of the theory though - unless for very slim soldiers standing within 1 meter of the target. 😜

The issue was also (probably first) discussed here. Dune2-guru MrFibble himself suggests it may be a "side effect of projectile interaction with moving targets" - leaning towards the bug theory.

I guess we won't be able to determine 100%, if it was actually intentional or not.

I will definitely implement gerwin's patch and make it optional. The only open question is it's default value.

I'm leaning a bit towards leaving it off by default for now, since being true to the original is imho a very important goal of Dune Dynasty, and veterans might have incorporated the behaviour into their tactics and expecting it. (Maybe that's the reasons the OpenDune team has not yet implemented it too.)

It gets rather problematic with multiplayer though - giving "insiders" and players starting north an unfair advantage. 🤔 So i might enforce the fix in multiplayer.

the game is not age of empires 3 with accurate representation of sizes

gameflorist wrote on 2023-07-04, 13:02:

I'm leaning a bit towards leaving it off by default for now, since being true to the original is imho a very important goal of Dune Dynasty, and veterans might have incorporated the behaviour into their tactics and expecting it. (Maybe that's the reasons the OpenDune team has not yet implemented it too.)

Sounds good to me. I have no interest in forcing anyone to play a certain way. Personally I have some tolerance for a little re-balancing, but for example the OpenRA re-balancing feels awkward in relation to how I remember the original Red Alert.
As for OpenDune on Github, I don't think it is about preference one way or the other, it is just generally very quiet there, in the past few years. It is always unpredictable with such projects, how at times there is much progress and attention, then at some point nobody cares, until someone with inspiration/time/skill arrives again.

F2bnp wrote on 2012-11-02, 09:32:

That's cool and all, but is there any reason to play Dune II other than pure nostalgia? The game's mechanics have long been surpassed my later games by Blizzard and Westwood themselves. It happened in a matter of just a few years.
Maybe it's just me, I could never get into it after having played the later games. The fact that you can't control units with your mouse and have to press buttons to command is also kind of a killer for me (can't play Warcraft 1 for the same reason).

I like the aesthetics, ambiance and what bethesda/westwood rts' are you saying are better?

gerwin wrote on 2023-07-04, 16:01:

I have no interest in forcing anyone to play a certain way.

I think everything can just be optional. Add some presets for the lazy ones. That's all. That's how i see 1oom 1.8.0 which is almost done.

from the manual:
"Ultraviolet reflections will eventually blind the unprotected eye."

This means the unit doesn't need to be in the direct shadow of enemy unit to not be blinded by the sun.
The enemy unit on the up is already stopping all the sun reflections coming from the ground behind him.
if you ever been in a snowy area you know what i mean (on the water too).
Almost white sand is reflecting sun just like snow and water.
The sun is so strong there that any surface is reflecting it.
it doesn't have to be sunrise/sunset.
😀

hey everyone!

i've just released v1.6.1 of Dune Dynasty. you can grab it here:
https://github.com/gameflorist/dunedynasty/re … ases/tag/v1.6.1

here is the changelog from v1.6.0 to v1.6.1:

• Provide macOS package:
  
  • "Now 3 operating systems fight for control of Dune."
  • Multiplayer-crossplay between Windows, Linux and Mac should be possible.
  • Only Intel x86_64 is supported.
    (See this fork for a Apple M1 Arm executable of v1.5.7.)
• Add new gameplay enhancement option for consistent directional attack damage. (thanks @gerwin!):
  
  • More info on this can be found in this forum post as well as the Dune II Insider's Guide (on page 279).
  • Option is named "Consistent directional damage" in the in-game gameplay options and "attack_dir_consistency" in config.
  • This enhancement is disabled by default.
  • It is always enabled in multiplayer for balancing reasons.
• Restore autoplay of introduction video on launch and add option to disable it:
  
  • Option is named "Skip introduction video" in the in-game gameplay options and "skip_introduction" in config.
  • This option is disabled by default.
• Further fixes and improvements:
  
  • Layout schematic of structures is now also displayed on high sidebar scales.
  • Size of multiplayer chat is now consistent on all resolutions.
  • Fixed Atreides superweapon-Fremen attacking Atreides in multiplayer.
    Since Fremen are their own faction in multiplayer (non-allied with Atreides),
    the Atreides palace will now spawn controllable Atreides troopers instead of Fremen.

have fun and let me know of any problems you might encounter!

Congrats on the release!

MrFlibble wrote on 2023-11-18, 11:30:

Congrats on the release!

thanks a lot! 😊 and also many thanks to you for your immense contributions to the Dune II community! 👍

Yeah, those were fun times 😄

just wondering why you don't allow uncovering the map as an option

robertmo3 wrote on 2023-11-20, 13:36:

just wondering why you don't allow uncovering the map as an option

You mean having the whole map uncovered from the beginning? Well, having to unveil the map is a quasi standard gameplay mechanic for this RTS genre. Also, I don't want to change gameplay too much.

I could look into adding it as an optional enhancement though.

gameflorist wrote on 2023-11-20, 14:23:

robertmo3 wrote on 2023-11-20, 13:36:

just wondering why you don't allow uncovering the map as an option

You mean having the whole map uncovered from the beginning? Well, having to unveil the map is a quasi standard gameplay mechanic for this RTS genre. Also, I don't want to change gameplay too much.

I could look into adding it as an optional enhancement though.

I noticed in skirmish games that revealed shroud activates enemy units. And allies start to attack enemy units/buildings which you reveal. So I tend to be really cautious with scouting.
If you would reveal all in skirmish game it would probably cause all enemy units to attack and swamp you, in the first minute of the game.
So one would need two types of revealed shroud, for it not to break the game: The normal triggering type, and a non-triggering cheating type.

I noticed the Windows OS system requirements were raised in this new release. Under Windows XP it won't run. Allegro 5.2 causes this with one NT6 call, among other things. But for such an OS the previous releases are a fallback.

gerwin wrote on 2023-11-20, 16:21:

I noticed in skirmish games that revealed shroud activates enemy units. And allies start to attack enemy units/buildings which you reveal. So I tend to be really cautious with scouting.
If you would reveal all in skirmish game it would probably cause all enemy units to attack and swamp you, in the first minute of the game.
So one would need two types of revealed shroud, for it not to break the game: The normal triggering type, and a non-triggering cheating type.

I noticed that too - also in normal campaign maps. The question is, if the "waking of the sleeper" happens due to the recon unit coming into view of an enemy unit, or due to the unveiling of the shroud.

I'll do some experiments.

Another improvement i was contemplating is to increase (maybe double) the sight of units / the amount of shroud they unveil to make reconnaissance less tedious. I think one of the custom campaigns does that too.

gerwin wrote on 2023-11-20, 16:21:

I noticed the Windows OS system requirements were raised in this new release. Under Windows XP it won't run. Allegro 5.2 causes this with one NT6 call, among other things. But for such an OS the previous releases are a fallback.

Ah, didn't notice that. Thanks for the info! I don't think keeping XP compatibility is necessary. Copying over the DLL's from the previous version might also be a workaround.